


Adversity

by AquaMarina (LittlePandemonium)



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 25,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25592440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittlePandemonium/pseuds/AquaMarina
Summary: In which a family picks up the pieces.
Relationships: Tracy Family - Relationship
Comments: 45
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here I go again!
> 
> This is the direct sequel to Rescue Me and is set a few years after it. For context the boys' ages are - Scott: 15, John: 14, Virgil: 12, Gordon: 8, Alan: 5.
> 
> I tend to drop easter eggs so if you recognize references to the original series they're intentional!
> 
> With that being said, I hope you enjoy this story! c:

"There's a Mr Barrett here to see you, sir."

Jeff finished off the dregs of his coffee and gave the mug to his secretary to be refilled. He straightened up in his chair and sweeped down his suit. "Thank you, Susie. Send him in."

A few moments later a short, plump man entered the office, trailed by two other men. Balding with a face that could cut glass, Jeff likened him to Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker his grandmother used to babble on about when she was in one of her more enlightening moods. He was wearing a black suit and tie and gave Jeff a cheshire grin as he crossed the room, giving off a pompous air. His partners stood a little behind their lead, giving Jeff space to observe them. The man on the right was a taller, thin man wearing a grey suit, making him the perfect foil to Alfred's rotund figure. He was wearing glasses and judging by his rigid posture, seemed a little timid. The third man did not match his associates at all. He was rugged and wearing a leather jacket and jeans.

Odd.

"Good morning Mr Tracy!" the Alfred lookalike chirped, shaking Jeff's hand so hard he thought it would fall off. "My name is Matthias Barrett but you may call me Matt. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Jeff remained on guard, nodding politely. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Jeff Tracy."

"Good to know you, Jeff." the scruffy man on the left snarked, causing Barrett to glare at him.

The stocky man cleared his throat, "These are my associates, Mr Chuck Collins," he pointed to the meek, blonde man in the suit, "-and Mr Edward Kenyon." he finished, raising his eyebrow at the tawny haired man who gave him a flippant look.

Jeff nodded. "Please, take a seat."

The three men sat on the stiff chairs laid before his desk. Jeff saw Susie at the door with a tray of drinks and gestured for her to come inside the office. She headed over to the desk and slid the tray down onto it, passing Jeff a mug of tea. Susie turned to the trio to offer drinks and saw that Kenyon was lecherously staring at her. Feeling uneasy, she gave Jeff a nervous look and he nodded in understanding, dismissing her. Kenyon grinned and poured out the drinks for his companions.

"So, what can I do for you gentlemen?" Jeff was abrupt, wanting the three to leave his office already.

After taking a sip from his tea, Barrett leant forward in his chair, "Well then Mr Tracy, I'll get right to it. Do you know who I am?"

Jeff was taken aback by his direct approach. "I don't follow you."

"I'm head of Barrett Industries, one of the key suppliers of components in the world. We make weapons." he chimed proudly.

"I see." Jeff grimaced, not liking where this was going. "Please, continue."

"I will. Our weapons are high grade military stock and I've recently invested millions into helping them traverse overseas to be used in combat. About three years ago my company made a deal with the Centurion Corporation to help create new, state of the art weaponized vehicles, such as the Mark V Statesman tank which has recently been deployed for use in the European Civil War."

Jeff stiffened in his seat.

"I'd like for you to be a part of this business venture. With your investment you'd be helping us build more weapons - particularly for use on the new hypersonic fighter aircraft being developed by the World Government. Being associated with an achievement such as that is something I could only dream of. Imagine it, Collins!" he demanded, dropping his hand on the lanky man's shoulder.

"I-I'm imagining it, sir." the bookish man replied, nervously straightening his glasses.

Matthias continued on, "There'd be a forty nine/fifty one split of course, with profits being divided to both companies."

Kenyon smiled confidently, "Forty nine being you and fifty one being us."

"Naturally." Jeff inputted.

"If you chose to invest your money in us you'd have the benefit of being remembered in history for your contributions, like I hope to be one day."

Kenyon rolled his eyes and pulled out a cigarette, resting it between his lips. "To summarize, Tracy, Mattie here wants to be the first company to supply these aircraft weapons and the only way that would be possible to achieve is with your help."

"With my money, you mean." Jeff cleared his throat, "Well it is a very interesting proposition, Mr Barrett, but I think your venture will be best suited to someone who has more experience in the field of weapons, which I have no interest in being a part of."

Barrett was taken aback, "Mr Tracy, I assure you that you don't have to have the experience to be a part of this venture-"

"I understand that, but unfortunately I disagree with this venture on moral grounds."

"Moral grounds? Mr Tracy, the world is at war. You can't just ignore it. Capitalize!"

"I understand your desire to help revolutionize the weaponry business, but it's not mine. I'm the wrong man for the job."

"But nobody's ever refused this deal before! It's near enough a fifty fifty split! Profits cut right down the middle!"

"It isn't though. I'm sorry Matt, but you'll just have to find somebody else to help fund your aspirations. I'm not interested."

"You can call me Matthias." he stood up crossly, finishing his tea. "Well this has been a waste of time." he snorted, turning to his secretary. "I thought you said he'd be interested!"

The lanky man shook his head fervently, "No sir, I said-"

"It doesn't matter what you said. You're useless, Collins!" he paused, turning back to Jeff. "Are you sure you won't reconsider? We can make it worth your while."

"If you're insinuating-" Jeff paused, anger growing. He tried to cool it. "If that's the case I'm definitely not interested in your proposition. Thank you for your time, gentlemen."

"Fine." Matthias chuffed. "Let's get out of here."

Kenyon stood up, studying Jeff closely. "Be seeing you, Jeff."

Jeff stood up as Matthias marched out of his office, trailed by a slouching Kenyon. Chuck waited for them to leave, then gave Jeff an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry Mr Tracy, I tried to advise him against asking you because I already knew of your stance on the war, but he wouldn't have it." he explained.

For the first time since the men had arrived, Jeff felt himself smile, sensing genuine concern on the younger man's face. "It's alright, Chuck. May I call you that?"

Chuck smiled and nodded. "O-Of course. I'm Mr Barrett's secretary, by the way. I don't think he mentioned that."

"Lucky you." Jeff replied, causing Chuck to smile.

"COLLINS!"

"Oh! Well I best be off. Nice meeting you, sir." he gave a little bow and turned to leave but collided with Susie in the doorway. "Oof!"

"Are you alright?" she asked, handing him his glasses. "Here you go."

He quickly mumbled an apology and took his glasses from her, taking a moment to absorb her appearance. Susie gave him a sweet smile, causing him to blush. "Well, um, thank you, miss. Goodbye!" he hurried away from the office, leaving Susie to stare longingly after him in the doorway. Jeff walked over to her and followed her gaze.

"Missing him already?" he teased, causing her to go red.

"O-Oh! N-No sir. How was your meeting?"

"Could have gone better." he admitted, letting out a sigh.

~~~~~

Inside his limousine being driven by Chuck, Matthias was still fuming at being so easily snubbed by the billionaire. He knew it wouldn't even cost Jeff a lot to help out but he was refusing to do it anyway and that's what was annoying him the most.

"That went well." Kenyon said, sarcasm seeping through his words. "I told you it wouldn't work."

"Yes, yes, I'd knew you'd have something to say on the matter!" Matthias snapped, rolling up his sleeves. "What time is it?"

"You have a watch, use it."

"You know full well that my watch is a fake!" he growled, adjusting it on his arm.

"Wow. If I didn't know you any better I'd figure you as being a phony businessman." Kenyon grinned.

Matthias gave him a toxic look. "Just keep it up, Kenyon. Keep going the way you're going."

"I can't help that you're bankrupt." The scruffy man shrugged.

"Shut up and focus on the problem at hand!"

"Which is?"

"Tracy!"

"Still want his money, right?"

"Yes! Very much so!"

Kenyon rolled his eyes, "Look, Tracy's smart. Unlike the other businessmen and women we've propositioned, Jeff Tracy actually seems to have a heart."

"Then we must go after it." Matthias stated. "I want my money, Kenyon."

"I hear ya, but how do you propose we change his mind?"

Matthias exhaled loudly, "It's unfortunate, really, but as Tracy says, we'll have to look elsewhere."

"Really?" Kenyon frowned.

"Or... not." came the smirk.

"Or not!" Kenyon laughed.

"Plan B, then."

The two men grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The drama unfolds! Hope you enjoy!

_A few months later..._

Scott was exhausted.

He‘d woken up at the crack of dawn to cram in some last minute revision for his English exam, knowing he wouldn’t have any other time to do it before school. Instead he’d be making breakfast and lunch for his four younger brothers. With his father rarely around Scott was forced into the position of caretaker and parent - his siblings were his responsibility and his alone. That being said, juggling his school work and home life could be extremely difficult at times, and Scott found both were wearing him down. He was physically and mentally exhausted, but that didn’t matter.

He was doing this for his mom.

Scott scribbled some notes into his revision booklet and glanced over the pages with bored eyes, flicking through the book. He just couldn’t focus. He was too worried about what he’d make his brothers for lunch, how he was going to get Gordon to swim practice on time and when he’d be able to go shopping again because they were beginning to get low on food. 

“Damn it...” he muttered, too frazzled to concentrate. He leant back in his chair which creaked under pressure. He turned towards his indigo curtains to see a corridor of light peeking out from in-between them, the early morning sunshine showing through as it rose into the frosty sky. Scott groaned and rubbed his neck, hauling himself to his feet. 

A bump in the next room told him that Gordon was beginning to fidget in bed, a sure sign that he was coming out of deep sleep. His younger brother was an early riser and tended to wake up around the same time Scott normally did, when the latter wasn’t pulling all-nighters. He sighed.

_I really need to stop this..._

It was times like these that Scott desperately wished his father could be at home to take care of his children, but the teenager knew that Jeff’s work took priority these days. His dad was important to his company, he understood that. But he was more important to his kids. It seemed as though Jeff didn’t even care about them any more. He rarely spent time with them and when he did it wasn’t for long and he continually let them down. He was always away on business retreats or cooped up in his office. It sucked.

Did his dad know how much he was hurting them?

Scott was brought out of his trance by John’s alarm clock chirping in the next room, followed by an alarm in Virgil’s, which was promptly switched off. Taking that as his cue to get up, Scott slid off his chair, shoved his revision papers into a folder and plodded downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Scott switched on the kettle and waited for it to boil, rubbing his hand through his chocolate locks as he set about preparing his brothers’ breakfasts and school lunches. He was shortly joined by a bedraggled John, the first of his siblings to arrive downstairs.

“Morning Scott! Sleep well?” he smiled, sounding way too energetic for someone who had just woken up.

Scott suppressed a yawn and poured out the boiling water into three mugs, back to his brother. “Yeah, just fine. You?”

“Oh yeah, not too bad at all.” came the chirpy response.

“All-nighter again?”

“Yeah.” John admitted, hands resting in his dressing gown pockets. “In my defence, it wasn’t planned this time. I was watching Venus for a while. Then a while dragged on and... you know how it is.”

“Uh huh.” Scott said disinterestedly, forcing back another yawn. “Do me a favour and get Virgil up, will you?” 

“I heard his alarm go off so he should be up by now.”

“It’s _Virgil_.”

“Fair enough.” John turned around and walked back upstairs. The blonde was almost tackled by Gordon and Alan racing down the stairs. “Careful!” he chided, shaking his head.

“Morning Johnny!” the two chorused, jumping to the bottom of the stairs and running into the kitchen. The two boys were already dressed in their school clothes, although Gordon’s t-shirt was on back to front.

“Morning Scotty!” Alan beamed, hugging the back of his teenage brother.

Scott smiled a fraction. “Morning sprout. Your toast is almost ready. Mind getting the plates out for me?”

“Sure!” Alan smiled, doing just that. Once their toast popped up, Scott grabbed the slices from the toaster, dropping them onto the plates. Alan grabbed the butter knife and trundled over to the counter. “Don’t worry, we can do this!”

Scott gave a solemn smile. “Sure kiddo. I’ve almost finished your lunches.”

“Have you had breakfast yet?” Gordon asked, sliding onto a chair. He swung his legs back and forth, struggling to sit still as usual.

“I’m not really that hungry at the moment. I might have something in a bit.” Scott replied, back to the auburn.

“Okay.” Gordon sighed.

John shortly returned, his face now like thunder. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Scott.

“Virgil doesn’t want to go to school today. He yelled at me and I can’t be bothered to reason with him any more.” he sighed, grabbing a plate of toast off the counter. “Thanks Alan.”

“This again?” Scott frowned. The oldest Tracy just couldn’t understand Virgil lately. His most recent behaviour had been appalling. He was constantly snapping at everyone, even if they hadn’t done anything wrong and kept wanting to be alone. Scott understood that they were all still mourning over their mother and the loss of their father as a parental figure but that didn’t condone his behaviour towards his siblings. He’d been downright rude. If something was bothering him that much Virgil would normally turn to Scott but now Virgil wouldn’t even talk to him. He wished he could find out what was wrong with his moody brother but right now he had more important things to deal with.

"Gordon, sit down and eat your breakfast!" Scott found himself snapping at his brother who was standing on his chair and doing a stupid dance, no doubt trying to impress Alan.

”But I’ve finished and I wanna play!”

“Get down from there!” he shouted, grabbing the child by his arm and lowering him to the floor. “Now get upstairs and tell Virgil that if he’s not down by half past I’m grounding him and he won’t be allowed his paints for a week!”

“Fine.” Gordon heaved his way upstairs, feeling sorry for himself. It just wasn’t fair. He didn’t really want to talk to Virgil. All he’d do is yell at Gordon like he’d been doing every single day for one reason or another. It would be: Gordon, shut up! Or Gordon, stop being annoying! 

Gordon was getting pretty sick of it.

Of this daily routine, even. He'd go into his brother's room, being careful not to trip up on the art supplies that were scattered about the place and would do various different things to try and get Virgil up. Then Virgil would wake up and yell at him, causing Gordon to go and get Scott, who would simply solve the problem by yelling back.

Today would probably be no different.

Full of his usual bounce, Gordon opened the door and leapt across Virgil’s room to his bed. He first patted his brother’s duvet, but this achieved nothing, so he nudged him instead. “Virgil, you have to get up.”

The lump in the bed didn’t move.

“Virgil, please.”

The lump seemed to sigh and turn over.

Pouting now, Gordon frantically poked the dejected figure in hope that it would annoy him into responding but Virgil did not budge one bit. 

“Go away.” the lump moaned.

“Get up!”

“No.”

“It’s time for school.”

“I don’t care.”

“Virgil, please!”

“No...”

“Fine, be that way!” Gordon scowled, making a hasty retreat. He plodded back downstairs into the kitchen where Scott was finishing adjusting Alan’s collar. The eldest Tracy turned to the sulking Gordon.

“He won’t come down.” the auburn sighed.

Scott growled, yanking on the collar a little harder than intended. “He’ll come down once I’m through with him.” he threatened, making his way upstairs.

Sensing that a shouting match was about to occur, John set about helping Alan and Gordon get ready to leave the house. He had just finished loading their bags when the shouting started upstairs. The two boys looked up at John with wide eyes, not liking when their brothers argued. John smiled kindly and shuffled them into the lounge where it was a lot quieter.

A few minutes later, an enraged Scott stormed downstairs, a red faced Virgil in tow. Scott dumped him in the kitchen and slammed the door behind them, apparently wanting to yell at the middle child some more, who decided to keep yelling back.

Ten tense minutes later, Virgil thundered out the front door, wanting to walk to school on his own. Shortly after this, the other four left. John secured the house and Scott ushered his brothers towards the bus stop, apologizing to them for already ruining their day.

When the bus arrived they hopped on board, all four boys now in a foul mood.

~~~~~

Virgil furiously marched down the street, thoughts still trained on Scott, his behaviour and more importantly, how disgusting his own attitude had been as of late.

He’d been vile. 

He just didn’t understand what was the matter with him. His emotions were like a ticking time bomb - everything made him upset, angry or hurt. He couldn’t feel happy. Joy. Excitement. Love. So he was taking it out on his brothers, the only family worth something to him. 

Just what was wrong with him?

He hated feeling like this. He just felt so stressed all the time, like a volcano waiting to blow off. His concentration was shot to pieces and he didn’t understand why he was feeling so negative all of the time. Everything just seemed to be getting on top of him. School. Home life. Homework. Friends. Mom.

_Mom..._

He just missed her so much.

Blinking his tears away, he continued down the path making up the school route, meeting a few other students on the way.

“Hey Virgil!”

Virgil turned his head to see his best friend approaching, inwardly wincing. It was hard to hide his feelings from him. “Hey Lance.”

“What’s up?” his friend greeted, noticing his friend’s downtrodden composure. 

“Nothing much.” Virgil gave a forced smile. It wasn’t fair. Lance had been so understanding and supportive since his mother died - Lance’s father had passed away when he was younger so he completely understood how his friend was feeling, yet Virgil continually shut himself away from him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, bit annoyed we have double math today but what can you do?” he shrugged. “How’s things at chateau Tracy?”

Virgil sighed, fingering his backpack strap. “The usual. Tense.”

“Ah.” Lance knew the brothers had been struggling recently, “Well, you know you’re always welcome to crash at my place if you need it.”

Virgil couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks Lance.”

Lance nodded, “No problemo! Race you to the front gate?”

“You’re on!” he took off, leaving his friend in his wake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad to hear you guys are enjoying this so far! Thanks for your support! <3

By the time Virgil reached school he’d calmed down considerably. He and Lance parted ways as they walked to their respective tutor groups and Virgil took his seat, pulling out his sketchpad. He decided to finish a drawing of John he’d started the evening before. Although all of his brothers were an inspiration to him, John exuded a calm aura and Virgil felt he needed that calm right now. His fiery temper was getting in the way of everything and he wished he could surpress his hurt as well as his older brother. John was good at hiding. 

Virgil wished he was too.

The minutes flew by as Virgil continued to draw and he soon drifted out of his surroundings, completely buried in his art. It was only when the school bell rang that he was pulled out of his reverie. He shoved his sketchbook back into his bag and waited for the class to fill up. 

~~~~~

A few classrooms down, Scott was sitting at a table with a group of his friends, going over revision notes. With the mock exams coming up the students were busy worrying about trying to remember everything they’d learnt over the past few weeks. Despite desperately trying to press the morning conflict to the back of his mind, Scott found his thoughts were dominated by his argument with Virgil and the clawing guilt that consumed him. He was guilty for letting Virgil get to him. He was guilty for upsetting Virgil. He was guilty that their father wasn’t home to take care of Virgil the way he should have been.

_“You’re not dad, Scott! Stop trying to be like him!”_

It stung. Scott didn’t want to be anything like his father.

“Hey Scott, are you alright?” Ethan asked, noticing the distant look on his friend’s face. He’d been looking like that a lot recently and the difference in his face had been striking. Scott was looking gaunt. Hollow.

“I’m good thanks. Why?”

“You looked a little lost there!” Jess put in, also concerned. “Our exam starts in thirty minutes, you sure you’re going to be alright?”

“Guys, I’m fine! Stop fussing. Now come on, talk Shakespeare to me.”

~~~~~

Stuck in an oppressive computer room with no windows or air conditioning, John was slouched in an uncomfortable chair, eyes glued to his computer screen. As he’d taken a few days off the previous week due to illness, his math teacher had asked him to spend a few hours catching up on the coursework he’d missed. It was basically just a case of typing up the information and absorbing it but it was really REALLY boring.

John leant back in his chair, already tired of answering the algebraic equations set out for him. Instead he found his thoughts wandering back to Scott and Virgil’s heated argument earlier that morning. He could still practically hear their scathing tones repeating on him.

_”He doesn’t care Scott! He never will!”_

_“Don’t say that! He does care!”_

_“Well he has a funny way of showing it!”_

John sighed. He understood where Virgil was coming from because admittedly he’d thought about it too, but like Scott he still had faith in their father. He just had to have faith in him. After all, it was his father. He had to believe he would change. Maybe one day he would. But he’d become so closed off since his mom died that John was struggling to keep holding onto that faith.

_Oh dad..._

Shaking these troublesome thoughts away, John started typing again.

~~~~~

Grandma Tracy walked into the reception of the elementary school, her face one of worry. She sat down on one of the soft chairs set out against the wall and waited to be called inside by the receptionist. She sighed, thinking back to the phone call that had summoned her there.

Gordon had gotten himself into trouble again.

For the third time in two weeks, her fiesty grandson had gotten into a fight with another boy in his class. It was one of many with Derek, a boy who wouldn’t leave Gordon alone. It wasn’t just his fault, though, as her grandson knew better than to fight.

_Oh Gordon..._

Gordon was not easily settling back into school for whatever reason. Before he had been energetic and eager, but ever since the accident, his mood at school had become chaotic and fraught. His concentration was shot to pieces and even the presence of Alan during break times had failed to pacify the auburn haired child. All he seemed to do was get into fights now. It was detrimental to his education, physical health, and his mental well-being.

“Mrs Tracy?”

“Yes, dear.” she stood up and followed the receptionist inside the school corridor. She was led into the headmistress’s office where Gordon was slouching on a chair, head down and obviously feeling sorry for himself.

His grandma took a seat next to his own. She placed a caring hand on his shoulder. 

“Hello again, Mrs Tracy.”

“Good morning Mrs Hickens. What happened this time?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

“Gordon was found attacking one of his classmates again, Mrs Tracy.”

“Derek?”

“Yes. Gordon claims Derek was saying things behind his back. Derek claims Gordon started hitting him for no reason.”

Christine pursed her lips. “I see.”

“He’s a liar!” Gordon snapped, lifting up his head to reveal a nasty black eye. “He started it! First he called me names and then he started hitting me!”

“Gordon.”

“What? He started it, not me!”

“Gordon!”

“He did! Honest, grandma! He said stuff about me, then Alan-“

“Gordon...”

“Then mom!”

Christine closed her eyes in understanding. 

Gordon lowered his head to hide his gathering tears. “So I hit him.”

The room went silent for a few moments so the adults could digest this information.

“Gordon, honey... you know violence is the wrong answer in any case, despite what he said. It’s not like you to act like this.” his grandma spoke kindly.

“I know...” he mumbled. “I couldn’t let him get away with it again. I’m sorry...” he held his head down. “I’m sorry too, miss...” he forlornly acknowledged his head teacher.

“It’s alright, Gordon.” The headmistress took pity on him, knowing the family’s circumstances. “But because of what’s happened, I think it would probably be best for you to spend the rest of the day at home away from Derek, as long as it’s alright with your grandma. You can take your worksheets to finish as there’s plenty of work for you to be getting on with.” she looked up at Christine, who nodded.

“That’s fine by me. I’ll see to it that he finishes his work.”

“Good. I am sorry about this, Mrs Tracy. I’m going to be speaking with Derek’s parents about this very soon. Be assured we are working on a way to rectify this situation.”

“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll see to it that his father finds out what’s been going on.” Christine stood up, taking Gordon’s hand. “Come along, Gordon.”

“Don’t forget your bag.” the headmistress chimed.

Christine led Gordon out of the office. They started down towards the reception when one of the classroom doors sprung open nearby, a teaching assistant standing in the doorway. 

“I’ve caught you just in time!” she panted, “Excuse me Mrs Tracy, I have Alan here. He’s not feeling well.”

“Alan?” 

Alan appeared from behind the teaching assistant and plodded into the corridor. He rubbed his eyes, obviously upset.

“He’s been complaining of a bad stomach ever since he arrived this morning. We gave him some water but it still seems to be bothering him.”

“I see.” she bent down to get a better look at her youngest grandson. “Where does it hurt, Alan?”

Alan pointed to his stomach and dove into his grandmother’s arms, willing her to pick him up. She cradled him.

“I wanna go home!” he cried, hiding his face in her neck. 

At his declaration she looked over at the assistant who nodded her head. “I’ll let his teacher know and get his bag.”

“Thank you, dear.”

Gordon looked up at his brother tiredly and held onto his grandmother’s arm. The assistant shortly walked back out and gave Alan’s bag to his grandmother. Gordon took it off her and carried it with his own to help her a little.

“Hope the boys will be feeling better tomorrow, Mrs Tracy!” Mrs Hickens called after her with a wave. 

Leaving the school gates, Christine walked over to her car, ushering Gordon towards the back seats. She opened the right car door for him and went to the opposite side to sit Alan down. She shut the door and entered the driver’s seat.

“You’re... not angry with us, are you grandma?” came a small voice from the back. Gordon was worrying.

“No. No, I’m not angry, dear, but we’ll have to talk about what happened with your father later. Don’t worry for now. I’m taking you boys home.”

She ignited her car engine and drove away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start of this chapter made me unexpectedly nostalgic so that was a nice surprise. Hope you enjoy!

Grandma Tracy opened the door of her son's house and held it open with her left hand and Gordon trotted under her arm with Alan in tow. They were immediately hit with the smell of overdone toast and coffee as the older woman noticed the used dishes and mugs left in the sink by her rushing grandsons. She gave a little tut and shake of her head, wondering why they hadn't used the dishwasher

"The dishwasher is broken." Gordon announced, sensing his grandmother's thoughts and wanting to make himself useful. "But I'll do the washing up now."

"Good boy." she ruffled his auburn locks, making a mental note to tell Jeff about the broken dishwasher when she next had a word with him. "I think you'll need the stool though, dear."

"Okay." he pitter-pattered into the hallway to retrieve said stool from under the stairs.

Having sorted Gordon, she turned her attention to the youngest Tracy. Christine picked him up and slid him onto the counter. He was still looking glum and feeling sorry for himself.

"Oh Alan, does your tummy still hurt?" she asked, caressing his blonde locks.

He nodded and whimpered. She opened the medicinal cupboard and pulled out a bottle of medicine. "I think this will help. Gordon, do you have a little spoon by you?"

"Yes grandma!" The boy quickly dried the spoon and passed it over to her.

Christine opened the medicine bottle and poured the pink liquid onto the spoon. Alan looked displeased and glared at the spoon, causing his grandma to smile. "Open wide, Alan."

"Dun wanna." he mumbled.

"Now Alan, this will make you feel better. Come on." she coaxed, pushing it closer to his pursed lips.

Her grandson pouted before submitting and opening his mouth. She fed him the medicine and gave him a second spoonful.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I hate that medicine." he whined. "It's supposed to taste like strawberries but it doesn't. It's gross."

"It's not supposed to taste nice, it's just supposed to make you feel better!" she chuckled, helping him off the counter. "Now, go into the lounge and put the television on. I'll be in shortly with a drink for you. What would you like?"

"Can I have grape soda please?"

She shook her head, "Not right now, dear. Your stomach will still be unsettled. I'll give you some water and we'll see how you feel in a bit, alright?"

"Yes, grandma." he hugged her midriff and padded into the lounge. Christine walked over to the sink where Gordon was still washing up and came up behind him. She patted his head, causing him to smile.

"Look at you being all helpful!" she smiled, picking up a glass he'd just finished washing. She grabbed the dish towel and started to dry it. "I just need to borrow the tap for a moment to pour some water for Alan. Would you like a drink, Gordon?"

"I'll have some orange juice please, grandma."

Christine poured some water out for Alan and collected another glass for Gordon. She walked over to the fridge and opened it, searching for the juice. She looked back at her grandson and noted how slowly he was working, taking a little too much time to wash everything. She smiled and turned back to the fridge, pulling out the juice. "Gordon?"

"Hm?"

"Once you've cleaned up I was thinking of baking a cake as a surprise for your brothers when they get home from school. Would you like to help me make it?"

"Would I?" he squealed energetically, eyes lighting up. "Thanks grandma! I'll get these things washed and dried right away!" he started splashing about in the water bowl, wanting to finish the job as fast as he could.

"Careful now, sonny! Don't splash so much!" she chortled, leaving his juice on the counter before taking Alan's water into him.

Virgil was still feeling a little blue. He was still thinking about his nasty argument with his older brother. He hated that he was constantly arguing with Scott but he always felt like the older teen was on his case. He just wanted to be left alone to mourn in peace. Scott never seemed to bother John so why was he so insistent in bothering him?

He sighed and zoned back into the classroom. His teacher was mumbling on about science-y things but Virgil hadn't been paying attention since class had started so wasn't surprised he had no idea what his teacher was talking about.

Virgil found his gaze drifting over to Mark. He was another one of Virgil's best friends, and similarly, Mark's mother had died when he was younger, too. Despite this being the case, Mark hadn't let it get to him and was still the bright and bubbly boy that everyone knew before she died. Virgil envied him greatly. He didn't know how Mark was able to manage his feelings like that.

Why were his friends so good at coping with loss and why did he suck so badly at it? Why couldn't he just be normal and grieve properly, like them?

"Virgil Tracy!" the teacher snapped, spotting him in a daze. "I hope you've been listening to what I've been saying!"

"Y-Yes sir."

His teacher glared at him before continuing his lecture.

With his teacher looking the other way, Virgil rolled his eyes and made eye contact with Mark, who smiled at him, knowing what Virgil's problem was. Virgil gave him a small smile back and started to discreetly doodle in the margin of his notepad, wanting to be lost in the world of art rather than the monotony of school. He hated it. He just wanted to go home and cry in his room, or alternatively, run away altogether. It would be better than continuously upsetting his brothers.

Batting the thoughts about how much he missed his mom away, his thoughts drifted onto his dad, who he equally missed as much. Jeff was never around for his sons now and hardly ever saw them because he was constantly at work. This hurt Virgil the most and was probably a key reason to why his attitude had been so disgusting as of late. He was really struggling to cope and didn't know what to do. Pushing his brothers away seemed to be the only answer.

He couldn't even talk to his grandmother. Since his grandfather had passed away the year before, he'd been avoiding her too because he knew he'd just break down in front of her if questioned about his feelings. He missed his grandfather too much. He missed his mother too much. He couldn't cope with both losses. It was too hard. His brothers seemed to have gotten over their deaths which just annoyed him because he hadn't. Everyone seemed so adjusted and back to normal compared to him. He hated it. He wished his father would come home for good. He wished Scott would leave him alone.

He wished he could stop feeling like this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer wait for this - I've just started a postgraduate university course so I have a lot less free time than before, but I'll still try to get chapters up as soon as I can!

"Okay class! Time to go now!"

Scott and his friends shuffled to their feet as they were hoarded out of the room towards the sports hall which was doubling as the examinations centre. Scott trailed behind his friends, thoughts still wrapped around Virgil's actions and attitude as of late. He tried shaking these thoughts away but they just wouldn't leave.

Scott, focus. There's no time for that now.

"You alright dude?" Ethan asked, noting his friend's quiet demeanour. "Worried about the exams?"

"Uh, yeah. Something like that."

"Well you don't have to be too worried. They're only mocks."

"I know, but I'd still like to do well in them. To prove I can still do something right." he stepped forward, overtaking his two friends who looked at him worriedly.

The teacher escorted her class into the sports hall where they all took seats at the desks in alphabetical order. Scott, being a 'T' was placed near the back, which suited him just fine. Near the back meant he was by the exit door which meant a quick escape if necessary. He sighed and tried to shake his thoughts clear, wanting to get the exam over with as quickly as possible.

He had to focus on English now. English.

He looked down at the English exam paper on his desk and stared at the bold title text. Bold and brash, like Virgil.

_Stop thinking about him!_

Scott let out a deep breath and tried regathering his thoughts. English. Writing. Exam. Techniques. Virgil. Virgil. Oh, Virgil. Why were you acting this way?

"Your exam lasts an hour. I'll wait until ten past so we can begin."

Scott clutched the pen tightly. It shook in his grip. He knew he couldn't fail this exam. He had to prove to everyone that despite his tardiness and tiredness in classes, he was still listening. He knew how to analyse texts. He knew how to highlight language features. He sort of knew about Shakespeare.

"You may start."

Scott opened his paper with a sigh.

John yawned as he leant back in his chair, eyes glued to the computer screen. He was still bored out of his mind and typing the data at a slow pace, not really focusing on it. He'd lost interest within the first few minutes of setting out his task so was now aimlessly bodging keys in hope they would create equations that made sense. After a few more minutes of bodging, he face planted the desk, having no energy to do anything.

Tumultuous thoughts of his brothers' arguments from the past few weeks clouded his mind. It was mainly Virgil and Scott, but honestly all of the boys had been a little tense. Alan and Gordon had gotten into a few arguments together, along with Virgil, Gordon and Alan, and Scott and Gordon, and Virgil and Gordon, then Alan and Virgil. The list went on.

Even John had had a few moments of discomfort here and there. He usually wasn't one to argue but when his brothers pushed him too much, he tended to push back hard.

He just hated doing it.

John had always preferred being alone, especially when he was stressed. Solitude was his friend and would allow him to think his problems through and ways to solve them without having to bother his brothers with them. He often bottled up his emotions and logically addressed each one, thinking realistically about consequences and alternate ways of tackling them. He analysed them, then solved them. It was that simple.

He knew that bottling up his emotions could be seen as unhealthy, and he certainly knew Scott thought that was the case, but John was too guarded to reveal his inner feelings. With his father gone, it made things more difficult. He'd never been good at dealing with matters of the heart.

Deciding to leave his data for a bit, John whipped out an astronomy book from his bag and started reading. In his science class they'd finally started learning about the stars, but John was already an expert at this point. He'd read about this since he was a child, so he was happy they were finally covering it in school.

John smiled to himself as he absorbed the information on the book pages. He'd read this particular book probably thousands of times, but it still held his interest every time. He loved learning about the universe and galaxies. Stars and planets and theories about space.

It was amazing.

Although in his early teens, John was already thinking about potential careers for him once he left school. He hadn't told anyone this yet, but he was thinking of becoming an astronaut. The idea excited him. He knew training would be rigorous. He knew it would be difficult. But if it meant he could finally be up in space and among all of the beautiful stars, it would be worth it.

John was so absorbed in his book and these career ideas that he subconsciously missed the first few sounds of a loud noise which seemed to echo downstairs. It was fairly muffled from where John was situated, so he thought nothing of it.

Hearing the noise again caused John to snap out of his reverie. He frowned and pulled his gaze away from his book, the noise now garnering his immediate attention as he recognized what had made the noise, but his brain couldn't compute why he was hearing it now.

Dropping his book, John stood up and listened again. The noise seemed to have stopped momentarily. He looked towards the door, frowning as the sound started up again, a little louder this time. John gasped. There was no mistaking that noise.

It was gunshots.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun.

“Ten minutes remaining.”

Scott chewed his pen as he thought through the exam question he’d just started. He sort of knew how to answer it, it was just a case of making it sound coherent. 

As he put pen to paper, a sequence of bangs echoed in the corridor behind him. At first he ignored it, thinking it was some skiving kids mucking about with the lockers, but the noise became louder. He was just about to complain about it when the sports hall doors burst open, a group of men wearing ski masks charging inside. Scott acted on instinct and hit the deck.

There was a shared scream as students realized what was happening. They dove out of their seats and ducked under desks, trying to protect themselves from the perpetrators who were quickly rounding up everyone. The men dispersed through the hall and started blocking off all of the exits, pushing the students towards the left side of the hall as they tried to run away. Desks and chairs were scattered about the place, having been pushed aside in the mad rush.

“Everyone up against that wall, NOW!”

Scott was frozen to the spot, eyes darting around at the chaos. His mind was still attempting to compute what was going on. He only ever saw things like this in action movies, so he was struggling to comprehend that same situation he now found himself in.

“Move!”

Scott was shoved violently towards the wall nearest the bottom room exit. He slammed into a few of his classmates and they were forced down into a sitting position, hands behind their heads.

Still feeling disjointed, Scott observed his surroundings. He tried noting every single little detail he could about the attackers. He needed to know who they were dealing with. He saw one of the masked men knocking out the main exam invigilator with the butt of his gun as the others were forced against the wall with the students, including the deputy head teacher of the school, Mrs Crawford. 

A man that Scott could only assume was the leader of the pack kicked over a few more desks and stood in the middle of the hall, shooting his rifle into the ceiling. The shots fired out loudly, quietening the terrified students. 

“How’s that for an entrance?” he giggled over the panicking students. On being ignored, he shot the ceiling again. “I said, HOW’S THAT FOR AN ENTRANCE?” 

All eyes were now on the villain.

“That’s more like it.” he smirked, resting his leg up on an overturned desk. He leant on the butt of his rifle, observing the panicking cohort. “Look at you all. Fresh faced and preparing yourselves for the world of work. But guess what? That’s going to be on hold for a little while. Your whole school is, in fact.”

Scott scowled. That meant his brothers were in danger too. He had to find them.

“Who’s the boss around here?”

Scott saw Mrs Crawford raise her hand. She was escorted over to him and he eyed her up and down.

“Hey pretty lady.”

She glared at him.

“What’s your name, honey?”

“Sally Crawford.”

“Miss?” he suggestively brushed up against her arm.

“Mrs.” she yanked her arm away from him.

“Mrs.” he rolled his eyes. “Miss Sally, I need some help. If you don’t comply, some of your students may get hurt. We wouldn’t want that now, would we?”

“What do you want?” she forced out, thinking of her terrified students.

“I’m glad you asked!” the man smiled, eying up the children. “We are actually on the look out for three students who attend this school! Now, I know what you’re thinking - why would we hold up an entire school just to find three lousy kids? But the thing is, these three are special kids and they come from a very wealthy family indeed! Richer than their wildest dreams. However, our photographic sources of them are pretty outdated now, which is why we’re asking you to help identify them. We only have three, old newspaper clippings from the 2054 Swiss Avalanche. Guess that gives it away who we’re looking for, huh?”

Scott’s heart stopped. 

“We’re looking for three students in particular.” the man continued. “One of them being a Mr Scott Carpenter Tracy.”

Scott bit his tongue hard to stop a gasp escaping. A few eyes in the auditorium peered towards him. Nobody moved.

“A John Glenn Tracy.”

Scott’s heart sank.

“And a Virgil Grissom Tracy.”

Scott’s hands curled into fists.

“Give these boys up and we’ll leave peaceably. I don’t want to go around causing trouble unnecessarily. Someone could get hurt.” he grinned maliciously.

“So... what you’re saying is... you expect the school to hand over these boys to you? Forget it.” Sally shook her head defiantly. Giving the children up was NOT an option.

“Aww, don’t be like that!” the leader pulled Sally close to him and she slapped him in response. Reeling from her attack, the leader used the butt of his rifle to then knock out Mrs Crawford. The students let out a collective cry as their only guardian collapsed into a crumpled heap. Some of the other men yelled at them to shut up, shooting the ceiling to reassert their dominance. 

Scott just felt numb.

The main hijacker pulled out a walkie-talkie from his jean pocket. He turned around and switched it on, talking into the mouthpiece. “Hey boss? We’re in.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer waits mean longer chapters - remember that. B)

Virgil sighed as he reread the same sentence in his science textbook, mind on other things. Well, actually, one thing in particular.

Scott.

It wasn't fair that his older brother had been barking at him more frequently than usual. It was hurting his heart. Everything Virgil did lately seemed to upset Scott and the younger boy wished they would stop fighting. He wished things would go back to normal again. He wished his dad would come home to take care of them. At this rate his father would never come home and the gap in his heart would never be filled again.

It sucked.

Virgil zoned back into his class. His teacher was talking to them about some sort of class experiment they were going to do. Virgil sighed. He didn’t care about his work anymore. He just wanted to stay in his bedroom, on his own, locked away from everyone. What he really wanted was to finish his new sketch of his mom and frame it on his wall so she could watch over him and do a better job of it than his father did.

“Alright class, I want you to work in threes for this experiment. As soon as you’re all paired up, make your way over to the tables at the back and start gathering the equipment you need.” Mrs Jackson expressed as the class dispersed. Virgil remained in his seat and forced a smile as Mark and Lance walked over to him.

“Hey dude.” Lance greeted. 

“How are you feeling now?” Mark asked.

“I’m okay, thanks.” he nodded. “Guess we’re working together?”

“If that’s okay with you?”

“Of course. Well, we should get moving, I guess.” Virgil hauled himself up and out of his seat and dragged himself across the room, his friends following. 

The boys made it over to the work bench and started setting up the equipment. They were just getting started when a faint shattering noise ricocheted around the room. The students quietened down to listen out for the noise again but it stopped. A few of the teenagers looked to their teacher as she pondered it herself, her brow furrowing into a frown. 

“Miss, what was that?”

“Be quiet a moment, please.” she hushed them.

The noise sounded again, louder this time. It echoed from the corridor into the open science laboratory and Mrs Jackson’s eyes widened. She ran for the door and slammed it shut.

“What is it, miss?”

“Everybody, down on the floor, NOW! Under the tables!” she commanded, boarding up the door using a few of the stools. “Behind the cupboards and cabinets if you can! There are plenty for you to hide behind or inside!” She crouched down herself and slid under one of the tables. When they were all in position, she spoke, “Class, what you just heard was the sound of gunfire.” she paused as panicked whispers hissed throughout the room. “What I need for all of you to do is be quiet. Don’t make a sound. I know this is scary but we must remain quiet, okay?”

Virgil was still in a daze. One minute he’d been standing upright, listening to Lance’s story about Mr Sweep falling into a puddle, and the next moment he’d been shoved to the floor by Mark who had been vigilant in abiding their teacher’s sudden instructions, with the boys then crawling under the nearest table like lemmings. The three boys crouched in a small space behind the cupboard, a number of other students hiding nearby.

Outside the classroom a lot more shouting could now be heard, the loud screams of students following. Virgil’s eyes widened and he shot a worried glance at his two friends, who equally wore frightened expressions. Just what was going on? The shouting became more distinguishable and Virgil registered the words, ‘move’, ‘gunfire’ and ‘hostage’. A collective gasp came from his other classmates, signalling they’d heard it too.

They knew they were in trouble.

There was a bang at the door as one of the intruders tried opening it, causing a few of the class to squeak as others shushed them. The chairs propping up the door screeched on the cold floor, causing the outsider to growl and try pushing it open again. Virgil felt his breath shudder. He remained in a foetal position, frozen under the desk as the banging continued. He saw Lance clutching the table and Mark attempting not to panic, releasing ragged breaths.

“What’s going on here?” a voice snapped outside the room.

“They’ve blocked the door!”

“Well barge it open then, you idiot!”

“With what?”

A large thump collided with the door, followed by a pathetic, “Ow!” from the first man. Another bump caused the chairs to give way and the door flew open, banging against the wall. Two men entered, looking around at the apparently empty classroom. 

From where he was hidden, Virgil peeked through a gap in the side of the cupboard and saw that they were carrying large guns. The first man was short and plump, looking a little red in the face like he didn’t really know what he was doing. The second man, however, looked cold and calculated. He had dark hair and a weasel-like face.

“There’s nobody here, Ritter!” 

“I can see that, fool! Go and check the other classrooms!”

“But-“

“GO!” Ritter shoved his shorter colleague out of the door.

Virgil watched as Ritter turned back towards the tables. He slowly started walking towards them then stopped, smirking to himself. He then continued his journey to the first table, and by that point he walked out of Virgil’s view. The young Tracy clenched his fists as the man rounded the table. Suddenly, a large slap on the table was heard, causing several of the teenagers to gasp, revealing their hiding places. Ritter laughed and shot the ceiling with his gun, causing the teacher and her students to clamber out from under the tables, Virgil included.

Ritter herded the class to the middle of the room and shot the ceiling again, causing them to quieten down.

“Nice try at hiding, kiddos, but not good enough!” he grinned, turning to Mrs Jackson. “Cooperate and you and the kids will be fine. I need you all to make your way over to the school canteen, right now. In an orderly fashion, if you please.” He held the gun on them. “And don’t try anything stupid, because I’m feeling particularly trigger-happy today.”

“You heard what he said, children.” she complied stiffly, leading the class away. 

The students followed their teacher down the corridor, holding their hands behind their heads. Virgil, Lance and Mark stood shoulder to shoulder as they were directed into the cafeteria, meeting up with other students from different year groups along the way. Although inwardly freaking out, Virgil tried to remain calm and started looking around at their captors. A lot of them were wearing ski-masks but some were not, and Virgil figured the ones without were probably the leaders, like the Ritter guy who had captured his class.

Arriving in the canteen, Virgil was overwhelmed by the mass of students already in there. It was almost full to the brim with practically the entire school. All of the teachers had been shoved into the corner of the room furthest from the exits, including his own, leaving the kids exposed. He noticed a lot of them had been knocked out. The hijackers obviously wanted the children to be unprotected. 

It suddenly dawned on Virgil that he’d forgotten about his brothers. He quickly scanned the room to find any signs of them and noticed that Scott’s entire year group seemed to be missing. Virgil figured that since they were all cooped up in the sports hall doing their exams, the hijackers figured it was easier to keep them there than bring the hoard up to the cafeteria. He then looked around for John. He couldn’t see his blonde haired brother but did recognize a few students from his class, causing Virgil to frown. 

Just where was John?

A few more gunshots were fired, a wave of panic blanketing the trapped students. Virgil and his friends were huddled together in the last remaining space in the middle of the room, next to the breakfast bar. They were forced onto their knees by Ritter who then jumped up onto the breakfast bar, firing a few more rounds into the ceiling to quieten everyone down. He gestured for his colleagues to guard the doors and grinned at the entire room.

“Sorry for the intrusion, everyone.” he said unapologetically, reloading his gun. “I know this must be a little bit stressful for you all, but if you decide to comply with our demands, everything will turn out okay. You’ll all go home with an amazing adventure to tell.” he finished reloading his gun, holding it securely in his arms. “However, if you fail to comply, then let’s just say your parents will start have to planning a few premature funerals.” 

His comment set a chain of shrieks and cries from the terrified cohort. Virgil scowled.

Ritter smiled at the chaos he’d created, “Since we’re in a school, I’m going to teach you a few life lessons for free, because I’m actually a pretty decent guy once you get to know me.” he smirked, walking the length of the breakfast bar. “So! Lesson one. This, or rather - this situation, is a hostage situation. Can anyone tell me what a hostage is?” 

At nobody coming forward, Ritter shot into the ceiling, causing several more screams.

“ANSWER THE QUESTION!” he yelled.

A brave student held up his hand. “A-A prisoner?”

“Very good!” Ritter nodded proudly. “Which means...”

“W-We’re all prisoners.” the student finished lamely.

“Correct! Ten points for you, my good sir. Now! Lesson two. Can anybody tell me what a ransom is?”

A female student held up her hand, and Ritter pointed at her. “M-Money. It’s when y-you trade money for s-something.”

“Good!” he chortled. “So now we’ve established that you’re all hostages, and we’re looking for a ransom. Now, here’s the fun part! Although asking for a ransom for each and every one of you would be fun, I think it could be a little tedious. I mean, how many kids are in this room? A lot, right? I couldn’t be doing with asking that many parents. So, instead, me and my colleagues are looking for three students. Just three students! And don’t worry about who we’re going to pick, because we’ve already decided. They have a very rich dad, you see, so it would be more beneficial to me and my colleagues if we held those three hostage instead.” Ritter smirked.

Virgil’s blood ran cold.

“So, if you give up these three individuals, we’ll leave and let everyone else go! But if you don’t give up these individuals, we continue to hold the school and-“ he paused, eyeing up the front row of students, “-we start shooting you. One by one. Starting with this row!” he claimed dramatically, whipping his arm at them.

The students in the front row shrieked and gasped, hugging each other.

“That make things clearer? Good. Now then, I suppose you’re all wondering who the lucky three are, hm?” he mused. “Well, if you haven’t already figured it out, we’re looking for Scott, John, and Virgil - the Tracys!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which three brothers panic.

They wanted him.

Virgil’s heart pounded in his chest. The bad guys wanted him. His brothers. 

They were in trouble.

Virgil tried not to visibly react as Ritter continued spouting off about how the students were in his control and what would happen to them if they refused to give up the brothers. Virgil could see Mark eying him up with a nervous expression on his face, knowing that his friend was in danger and not knowing how to help him. A few of his other classmates also shot him worried looks but to his amazement, none of them audibly gave him away. Most were too scared to even say anything anyway.

As of right now, he was just another student.

Ritter gazed down at the trembling children and smirked, knowing he had the upper hand. If he could just get one of them to crack, they’d soon reveal the Tracy brothers, no problem. It would have been easier from the get-go if they‘d been able to find recent photographs of them. He silently cursed the Tracy patriarch for culling every single photo of his children out of the media, leaving only stills from the avalanche during which the boys were much younger. It was because of the accident that Jeff had decided to have all photos removed in the first place. The invasion of the press after the accident had been an awful burden to the Tracy family. The news reporters had been continually trying to snap pictures of each of them - especially the injuries Jeff’s children had sustained. There had been a constant bombardment. During Grant’s funeral there had been another attempted press invasion and that had been the last straw for the grieving businessman. He did everything possible to get them removed.

And it worked.

Ritter chuckled at the image of a frazzled Jeff Tracy. He’d be even more frazzled when he knew he was missing three sons. He was frantic enough losing his wife. The criminal chuckled. The plan seemed to be going well so far, but none of the kids were being obedient. He figured one would instantly squeal and give up the Tracy boys but so far they were all being brave. He knew that couldn’t last long.

He jumped off the table and started creeping towards individual students. They shied away from him when he got close and he made sure to glare daggers at them all. He wanted to intimidate them. He rested his body weight against his gun and stared them down.

“So, who wants to talk?”

~~~~~

_Gunshots?_

John‘s eyes widened as the muffled gunfire continued to sound off in short intervals. It sounded like it was coming from the corridors downstairs as the shots seemed to have a fluctuating echo. Acting on pure instinct, John pounced across the room and bolted the door shut, yanking down the blind to cover the door window. After securing the door he pranced back delicately across the room and landed hard on his chair. The seat momentarily span around and John pushed his legs against the desk to still its movement. He froze on the chair, heart pounding in his chest. He couldn’t believe this was happened. Was this actually happening? Or was his imagination getting the better of him again? That often happened in lesson - he was an avid daydreamer. But this? This seemed real. Too real. He let out a ragged breath and tried to snap himself out of his growing panic.

_Think John, think! Gunfire! Gunfire! This is actually happening right now - you have to focus!_

He shook his head and swallowed down his fear. He couldn’t fall apart. He wouldn’t allow himself.

_Gunfire. Okay? Gunfire. That was definitely gunfire, you’ve seen enough Westerns to know the sound of gunfire. Okay. Okay. Step two. Why would there be gunfire? Think logically about this. Ex-student going on a rampage? What else could it be? Oh gosh, this is ridiculous! Okay, calm down. You’re going all tense. Calm it down. Okay. You’re in a room on your own. You’re probably safe for now. Probably... Oh boy, what do I do? Think, John! What would Scott do? Scott..._

His eyes widened and he gasped loudly. His brothers were out there!

_Scott! Virgil! Protect them, mom!_

John knew he had to do something. He couldn’t leave his brothers out there alone with some crazed gunman. He needed to know where they were. He needed to know they were safe.

_What lessons do they have now? It’s Week A, Monday, Period 2. Virgil has Biology, right? What about Scott? Oh wait! He has his exams!_

More gunfire sounded off downstairs, ricocheting through the school. It seemed more muted than before, suggesting the gunman was heading towards the back of school, towards the science classrooms. They were obviously targeting every single room. What if his brothers were hurt? Or worse!

John rubbed his temple. This wasn’t helping. He needed to stop stressing on the negatives and start acting towards a resolution. He reached over to the computer desk and pushed the computer mouse with his finger, causing the screen to flash back on. He waggled the mouse over the web page, trying to think of something to do.

_Okay John, focus. You need to do... something! Anything! Wait a minute... Police! Call the police you dipstick!_

John gently reached down into his rucksack and unzipped the large pocket at the back, reaching in and he pulled out his phone - which had a flat battery.

“No, not now!” he cursed quietly, tapping the screen to see if it would make a difference. His phone was completely dead. He’d been meaning to buy a new one for a while but with everything going on he’d completely forgotten about it. “Oh for the love of-“ 

John angrily dropped his phone back into his bag. Another idea crossed his mind. He knew he couldn’t call the police, but what about emailing them? If he went onto their website, surely he could find some details for someone somewhere and they could help? He shrugged off the absurdity of the suggestion and ended up sending a desperate email to a random admin officer at the police station, hoping they’d actually pick it up and respond to the incident. He then saved his work and logged out. 

The lean blonde gently stood up then crouched to the floor, trying to listen in and hear anyone speaking to gauge the situation. For a few moments he couldn’t hear anyone. Then some loud gunfire startled him. He slowly made his way back onto the chair and dropped his head into his hands, completely overwhelmed by the situation. He knew he couldn’t leave the room because he’d probably end up getting discovered and shot. He needed to find out what was going on some other way.

An unorthodox thought flew into his brain. Security cameras! The school had been planning on having some new cameras installed recently but John didn’t know where they were actually located and even if they had been. They were tiny, high tech cameras being used as a trial to monitor behaviour in the school’s public spaces. John only knew about the plans because he’d secretly been hacking into the I.T technician’s school account and he’d found the plan schematics.

He felt a faint blush grace his cheeks as he recalled his slyness in actually hacking a member of staff’s school account. One of his classmates had made a point of saying that John was a computer whizz after seeing him perform classwork with ease, Despite this, John had never really considered himself THAT computer literate before. At being complimented he decided to see what else he could do. So he’d pushed himself and started to learn how to code and hack things, just to see if he could do it. His test had worked. 

_Hack into the security cameras?_

John’s mouth dropped open at the thought. If he did that successfully, he could get some eyes on the situation and maybe tell the police what was going on. Or at least identify the attacker in some capacity.

‘Just like John McClane in Die Hard.’ he found himself thinking in Gordon’s voice. 

_Fantastic! You can do this, Johnny-boy. Just concentrate._

With a new-found sense of hope, John began to type.

~~~~~

Scott was miffed.

He and his fellow students were being forced to sit against the wall with their hands behind their heads, and they’d been doing it for so long that his were aching terribly now. Furthermore, the lead hijacker who he’d found out was known as Kenyon, was abhorrently obnoxious. He kept talking about how ‘he was in control’ and ‘this plan is foolproof’ so ‘you better hand over the Tracy scum or I’ll blow your heads off one by one’, which simply signified how much of a jerk he was.

Scott was more scared for John and Virgil. He hoped they’d managed to somehow get away from their captors, because he knew they were being hunted. He wondered if they knew too. Had they been told what was going on? Had anyone given them away? With so many students in school, Scott knew that one of them would be bound to slip eventually; primarily Brian Kendrick, the jockish bully in Scott’s class. He’d been knocked out during the first invasion scuffle so had missed Kenyon’s confident spiel about wanting to capture the Tracy boys. When the jock woke up Scott guaranteed he’d be given away by him. The two were practically rivals.

“I’ll ask again. Which one of you losers is Scott Carpenter Tracy?” Kenyon roared, tapping the butt of his gun on the floor. “I know the other two aren’t in this room at the moment because the class roster list was helpfully given to me by one of the exam invigilators whom I knocked out.” he smirked at his own joke. “So I ask again. Scotty-boy, I’d like for you to come forward, please.” he beamed devilishly.

Scott found himself biting on his tongue to restrain himself. The villain was calling him by the nickname his brothers gave him. His brothers...

He needed to get out of there. He needed to know they were alright.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this chapter has taken so long! I had something unexpected happen irl causing me to lose my mojo for a bit. 
> 
> Things have finally settled so I’ll try and update more frequently again now.

John’s slender fingers danced across the keyboard. After twenty minutes of struggling on the computer, he’d finally managed to hack into his teacher’s account and was now looking for the security cameras. He knew they were available on the system somewhere, it was just a question of locating them. Pausing momentarily in thought, John gently tapped his index finger on the side of the keyboard. He was trying not to clog up his brain with worried thoughts about his brothers.

He needed to stay focused.

 _It’s not like Scott and Virgil are relying on me or anything._ came an unhelpful thought.

A stream of data rolled down the computer screen and John scanned it closely, eyes burning under the strain of the bright window. A large gasp broke out of his throat when he found what he needed. After inputting a few more calculations, several black and white closed-circuit television screens popped up onto the computer. 

Letting out a sigh of relief and leaning back on his chair, John leant back into the computer screen to see if he could see anything important. He flicked from the outside cameras to the corridor cameras and office cameras. Everywhere was empty. Empty and silent. He flicked through some of the upper room cameras and gasped when he caught sight of a rogue man holding a large rifle walking down one of the corridors. The man seemed to be wearing a black ski mask and outfit. John frowned and clicked on the second corridor camera as the man left his line of sight to find nothing. He then moved onto the cafeteria camera and was almost blown away by how crowded the room was. There were students everywhere. Seeing the gunmen standing around them, John came to a quick conclusion.

They were being held hostage.

“Oh smeg.” John exhaled deeply. This meant he was the only person who had a chance of saving them.

_Wonderful._

Daunted by his responsibility, John sighed. He snapped himself out of his growing panic and examined the students to find his siblings, not finding them. If Scott and Virgil were there, they were out of shot. Getting an idea, John rummaged around in his bag before pulling out his earphones. He plugged them into the audio jack and fully turned up the volume, seeing if the cameras recorded sound. Despite being turned all the way up, the audio was very faint. He watched carefully as the lead gunman spoke to the cohort, apparently waggling his gun around to intimidate them. John could see he was upsetting the students. He went to zoom the image but accidently knocked it, switching the cameras around. The image changed, morphing into a bird’s eye view of the sports hall.

John’s eyes widened. He could see Scott. He recognized his brother instantly among the sea of other students. His older brother had been herded against the wall with his fellow classmates. Their hands were behind their backs but thankfully all were unharmed. He zoomed in the image to see the unconscious teachers. He gulped, regretting thinking too soon. John focused the image on his brother. Scott looked bored, if anything. John felt his mouth crawl up into a small smile. It was just like Scott to remain unbothered by a freaking terrorist attack. He was so brave.

“Feeling brave, aren’t we, kiddos?”

John jumped violently. This camera had audio! He turned down the volume as not to invoke another heart attack.

“So I ask again. Where is Scott Carpenter Tracy?”

John’s heart stopped. It took him a moment to recover before he was able to bring himself to look at the screen again. Why were they looking for Scott?

It hit him hard.

_They were the sons of a billionaire._

“Oh my god.”

John reeled in shock. That meant they’d be after Virgil. And HIM. They were after him!

Trying not to make any sudden movements that would give his position away, John gently sank back into his chair, keeping as still as possible. What was he supposed to do now? What COULD he do? He was as trapped as his brothers were! He bit his lip and hovered his hand over the computer mouse, gently clicking it so it returned the image to the cafeteria. He needed to find Virgil. He had to know he was safe.

John watched the silent screen for a while. Nothing seemed to be happening until the students in the front row appeared disturbed by something off-screen, the gunman charging towards the commotion. John’s heart somersaulted in his chest. He couldn’t see what was happening. He needed to know!

After a few moments he received his answer. 

The blonde could only watch on in horror as the gunman walked back into the frame of the camera shot, dragging a struggling teenager.

It was Virgil.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am on a roll! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter c:

“Hands on your heads I said! And keep them there!”

Virgil held his hands behind his chestnut hair as the students were assessed, the guards walking down the rows of sitting students to see which were actually complying with their orders. In this time Virgil managed to get a good look at the men ordering the issues. The lead captor had scruffy dark hair and was wearing a black jumpsuit. He was of average height and build and had stubble growing on his face.

The man strolled past Virgil’s class and headed towards the students sitting across the room next to the theatre doors. Letting out a shaky breath, Virgil glanced over at his two friends. Both nodded their heads at him, signalling that they were alright. Feeling his body relax a little, Virgil tried to get a better look at the guards to see if any could be identified. It sounded silly but sometimes John got him watching shows about crime and he figured he could potentially recognize criminals featured on it. Lost in thought, he almost missed the hushed comments coming from nearby.

“They should just surrender themselves.” came a sharp whisper. It pulled Virgil out of his trance.

“Try telling them that!” 

“Virgil’s stubborn. He’ll never do it.”

“Neither will Scott. John probably would but he’s not here.”

“Shut up!” a nearby guard called over to them.

Virgil found himself scowling. The voices were coming from a few of his classmates whom he disliked and they disliked him. The leader of the pack was called Nathan and he’d never gotten along with Virgil. They’d always butted heads in lesson and Virgil figured he way either jealous of his family or jealous of his artistic talent or something. Nathan occasionally picked on him and his friends to show off to his own.

Nathan glanced over at Virgil with cold eyes, practically willing him to give himself up. Virgil frowned back and delicately shook his head. Nathan scowled back and tapped at his watch.

He was giving him time?

“I ask again. Where is Virgil Tracy?” Ritter’s voice startled Virgil as he hadn’t realized he’d moved back across the room to them. Virgil glanced back at Nathan with wary eyes. Surely the other boy wouldn’t give him away, would he? Nathan tapped his watch again.

Oh. He meant Virgil’s time was running out.

The red-headed rival opened his mouth as if to say something. Virgil’s heart started pounding in his chest and his eyes glanced around for an exit. He knew once he’d been given away he’d have to run for it.

“Excuse me?” Nathan squeaked to the nearest guard. Ritter saw this and marched over to him.

“Yes? Are you Virgil Tracy?”

“No, but I know who is.” he replied smugly, causing a few students nearby to start hushing him, much to the amusement of their captor. “So if I gave him up... what would I get in return?”

He was selling him out, the fool!

Ritter grinned deviously. This kid had no morals, just like him, “Oh, I see... What would you want, kiddo?”

Nathan blinked. He hadn’t actually thought they’d abide his request. “My freedom, really.” he was nudged by his friends, “Oh and my friends’ freedom. And maybe the new Xbox that’s coming out?

Virgil couldn’t believe it. His life was being bargained with for an XBOX? The lazy, lying, cheating coward. If they ever got out of this mess Virgil assured himself Nathan would get a right punch on the nose!

Ritter considered this and nodded. “Alright. One of my associates will take you upstairs and make the necessary arrangements for your and your friends’ release.” he paused excitedly, “Now then, where is he?”

Nathan grinned and pointed straight at Virgil. Virgil’s heart skipped a beat. He locked eyes with Ritter who smirked widely, knowing that the prey was almost in his grasp.

“Virgil, run!” Mark cried.

Virgil stumbled to his feet and dived for the nearest exit but was caught by the collar of his shirt and dragged back into a headlock by one of the men. He struggled wildly and almost got free again but was pushed into Ritter’s arms, the man looping his thick arms around Virgil’s middle. He was dragged into the middle of the room and forced onto his knees, Ritter resting the gun against his back.

“Thank you! A little cooperation makes the world go round!” he removed the gun and pulled him up to his feet. Virgil remained impassive. He would not let his fear show.

“So you’re the infamous Virgil Tracy, huh? Strange. You don’t look anything like your old man. Must take after your mom.”

Virgil growled and tried to punch Ritter but was quickly brought back into submission.

“He’s a bit touchy, ain’t he? Take him to the other room and tie him up.” he ordered, pushing Virgil towards his subordinates who led him away.

Trying to ignore the sympathetic glances directed at him as he was dragged off, Virgil was led into the corridor and shoved into one of the farthest rooms at the back of the school. His hands were bound behind him and was dumped carelessly on the floor. The men tied the rope to the leg of one of the tables and Virgil glared daggers at them. He had no idea what they wanted but it was clear it had something to do with his father.

_Dad..._

The men left the room. After a few attempts to pull his arms free from the rope, Ritter entered the room, looking as cocky as ever. Virgil stopped resisting and tried ignoring the man who just grinned at him.

“Hey Virgy-boy. Bet you’re wondering why I’ve brought you here, huh?”

Virgil blanked him. Ritter walked across the room and ducked in front of the teenager. He grabbed his jaw and yanked it up, forcing Virgil to look up at him.

“Playing hard to crack, are we?” Ritter smiled eerily. His grin dropped and he slapped Virgil across the face, whipping his head to the side. “Well I don’t like being ignored, either.”

Virgil bravely recovered, glaring up at the man. “If you’re after my father’s money, you can think again. He won’t give it up to the likes of you.”

“Is that so?” Ritter chuckled, grabbing his jaw again. “We’ll see about that, kiddo. We’re holding a very valuable card.” he laughed and left the room, locking the door behind him.

Virgil sighed, pulling at his ropes again. He just hoped Scott and John would be okay.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your continual support, it honestly means so much to me. <3

They’d taken him.

John’s heart had actually stopped. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Virgil had been caught by those monsters. Caught by those monsters!

_Don’t panic, John! Don’t panic! The police should be on their way soon. They won’t hurt him, they won’t hurt him!_

John let out a strangled breath and stood up defiantly, legs wobbling out of stress for his brother. He had to do something. His little brother was in danger. 

With a newfound sense of determination, the lean blonde crept towards the door and waited beside it, listening against it to seek out any noises in the corridor, but there were none. Deciding the leave the sanctuary of the library for the first time since the incident began, John quietly unlocked the door and stepped outside into the stagnant corridor, closing the door behind him. He padded along slowly, not wanting the floor to creak under his tread, and soon reached the room which contained the lower staircase. 

John peeked his head through the door and listened for noise. On hearing nothing but silence, he moved down the stairs, getting onto his knees and peering through a gap in the staircase. There was still no sign of anything.

Satisfied he was completely alone, John went back upstairs and into one of the I.T classrooms, looking around for a phone to call the police. Finding nothing there, he silently cursed and manoeuvred his way back to the library, closing the door behind him before locking it once again.

It was no good. He was stuck.

~~~~~

Gordon idly flicked through the television channels with the remote. He was lounging on the sofa as Alan sat on the rug next to him, sliding his cars along his garage playset. Gordon frowned at the noise his brother was making and continued flicking through the channels, trying to find something decent to put on.

He was REALLY bored.

Their grandma was baking cookies in the kitchen next door. She’d asked Gordon if he wanted to help but he wasn’t in the mood for it, still feeling down about his earlier fight with Derek. He gently grazed his fingers along the bruise on his eye. It was extremely sore. Earlier on his grandmother had told him to hold an ice pack to it to help numb the pain and he had done for a while, until his arm had gotten tired. It had now started to hurt again.

‘Would putting an eye patch on it help?’ he mused, ‘Then I’d be like a pirate. Cool.’

“Gordon?”

“Hm?” he dozily turned to his brother to find him sitting on his knees, alert eyes locked to the television screen. “What?”

“Look.” came Alan’s small voice.

Gordon frowned and turned towards the television. On thinking about his eye he’d ceased his flicking and had ended up on a random news channel. Gordon watched the programme as the headlines scrolled along underneath, not really taking them in as he always found this channel to be boring, not understanding much of it. The camera appeared to be panning to a random school front, which was surrounded by a bunch of police cars and police vans.

It then struck Gordon how strange it was to have police cars at a school. A second after he’d had this revelation, Alan let out a cry of horror as the school gates came blaring up on screen. Gordon’s eyes widened.

They were emblazoned with the logo of the school his three older brothers attended.

“Grandma! Grandma, come quick!” Gordon cried, turning up the volume.

The Tracy matriarch hurried into the lounge, still holding her mixing bowl. “Gordon? What’s the matter?”

Gordon pointed at the television. 

_”-were made aware of a threat at the school, leading the police straight to them. No demands have been made as of yet, but it is clear that the school is being held hostage and-“_

The bowl clattered to the floor, scaring the two children. Both looked up at their grandmother to see her physically shaking, eyes glued to the TV screen. After a few moments she pulled herself out of her panic and rubbed her doughy hands on her apron. 

“Boys, grab your coats.” 

She grabbed the car keys off the table and reached for her own coat, swiftly pulling it on as she shakily did up the zip. She ran into the kitchen as the two boys put on their own coats and she soon came rushing back out with a backpack of necessities. 

“Grandma, what’s going on?” Gordon asked, not understanding the seriousness of the situation, “What’s a ‘hostage’?” 

“Never mind that now, Gordon! Grab my phone!” she picked up Alan and hauled him into her arms as she entered the porch. Gordon grabbed hed phone and ran back to her as she locked the front door. They then got into the car and hastily did up their seatbelts. 

“Gordon, I want you to try ringing Scott!” Christine said urgently, starting up the car. 

Gordon scrolled through his grandma’s contacts until he found Scott, then started ringing him. 

He waited and waited and waited, but there was no answer. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun. c:<

"May I have some more coffee, Susie?"

"Of course, sir."

After watching his secretary leave his office for the millionth time that day, Jeff sighed and leant back in his chair, loosening his tie as he scanned his files. The businessman had just sat through another tedious board meeting with some financial executives who had been spewing convoluted jargon and statistics at him for two hours straight, boring him to death. He’d actually ended up zoning out at several points during the meeting, wishing he was anywhere but in that room.

Preferably at home, where he knew he was unwelcome as of late. 

Jeff knew he’d been a terrible father to his sons. He’d practically abandoned them after the funeral as he couldn’t bear being at home. He’d tried so hard to be there for his sons when they needed him most, but continually gave into his emotions. His grief. He couldn’t bear being there without her.

There had been so many broken promises. It had caused arguments. The older two seemed to be more accepting of his absence, but the younger three... 

Virgil would snap at him. Give him sarcastic responses and never look him in the eye. Gordon would shoot him disappointed glances and pretend he was okay with his father never turning up to his swimming lessons. Alan was just... Alan - naive as always. Bombarding him with many questions, wanting to know when he’d be coming home next. Wanting to play cars together.

A light chime echoed through his office. It pulled him out of his musings and looked down at his phone, confused to why it was ringing audibly. He’d turned it onto silent mode in preparation for his earlier meeting, hadn’t he? Or had he? 

_Whoops._

Shaking his head at his forgetfulness, Jeff held the phone and saw that the caller was an unknown number. He frowned and scrutinized it closely. The number contained the area code of Southern Kansas. He answered the call.

"Hello?”

“Dad?”

“Virgil?”

"Dad, it’s me.”

“Virgil, are you in school? Why are you calling?”

“We need to talk.”

He frowned at Virgil’s odd register. Something was wrong. “Virgil?”

The line went quiet for a few moments. He could hear faint voices in the background before someone unfamiliar spoke.

“How about trading a sum for a son?”

His heart fluttered. “Excuse me?”

The voice laughed. “You heard me, Tracy.”

“Who is this?” he snapped, fear beginning to surface.

“Someone who would _love_ to get his hands on your bank details.”

“My what?” he blurted. “Put my son back on the phone. Now!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Tracy. He’s a little tied up right now.”

His blood ran cold. It suddenly dawned on him what was happening. “Where are you? Where have you taken him?”

“Now you get the picture.” the cocky voice sneered.

“What do you want?” Jeff mouthed slowly, anger seeping into his bite.

“It’s simple, really. Bank details, company payroll information, business stocks. Give us what we need and we’ll consider letting your son go.”

A wave of nausea washed over Jeff. “Okay. Okay, I understand. I’ll do as you ask, just me talk to my son!”

He heard a noise which sounded like harsh material scraping against the phone speaker.

“D-Dad?” came his son’s anxious voice. “I’m sorry.”

“Virgil! This isn’t your fault! Don’t worry about anything son, everything’s going to be alright. I-I’ll come find you, everything’s going to be okay!”

Virgil felt a sudden lurch of bravery, “Dad, I’m being held by someone called Ritter! He’s working a guy called Kenyon and-“

The phone was dropped to the floor and Jeff could hear the sounds of a scuffle. He gasped and shouted Virgil’s name into the receiver several times, his heart racing. Ritter let out a craggy few breaths as he picked up the fallen phone.

“You’ve got one hour. We’ll be in touch.”

The line went dead.

Jeff stared at the blank screen of his phone in horror. They had his boy. HIS boy!

He was still in shock when his panicked secretary appeared in the doorway, her face white. 

“M-Mr Tracy, I’m sorry to bother you but you need to see something!” she urged.

Jeff forced himself to his feet and practically stumbled into the open reception area his assistant worked. Susie pointed to the corporate television which was playing silently on the wall. Colourful subtitles encased in black were popping up on the screen, giving a summary of what was being said by the unseen reporters. An image of a large school academy was splashed across the picture. It was surrounded by the blue flashing lights of the numerous police cars spread around the campus.

Absorbed by the picture, Jeff was numb to the panic flaring around his body. He let out a large gasp of air when he realized his chest was struggling. Susie was immediately by his side, escorting her boss to the nearby plush seats. She was speaking to him, but he couldn’t hear her words. 

All he could hear was Virgil.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early Christmas present.
> 
> Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas despite the chaos! <3

Sitting with his aching arms splayed across his head, Scott watched his captors closely. In the last few minutes they had all gathered together in one spot in the hall, obviously discussing something they didn’t want the students to hear. They were all crowded around Kenyon, who was speaking into his walkie-talkie. Moments later, he started laughing like a hyena, his cackles reverberating around the sports hall.

Something was wrong.

The group of terrorists disassembled and stalked back towards the line of students, Kenyon remaining in the middle. The wide smirk on his scruffy face alarmed Scott greatly. It was almost as if the villains knew they had the upper hand now, and that meant trouble. Trouble for the Tracys.

“Well well well then, kiddos!“ Kenyon chortled, “Do I have some news for you! And by ‘you’ I mean particularly mean _Scott_.” his voice dropped.

The hairs on the back of Scott’s neck prickled up at this announcement. He forced himself not to visibly react and remained impassive as he stared at the villain.

“We have your brother.”

There was a collective gasp amongst the student body. Scott remained apathetic, his heartbeat quickening.

“But I’m not telling you which one.”

A surge of anger shot through him and he clenched his fists, trying not to react to the taunts. He couldn’t give himself away. Not now.

“So why don’t you make things easier and give yourself up?”

Scott’s face twisted into a frown and he shot daggers at the man. He wasn’t going to give himself up that easily. He just knew he had to get out of there. He NEEDED to get out of there. His brothers needed him. He couldn’t help them stuck in here with this lunatic!

_But how?_ came a lone thought. With each exit guarded there was no way he’d be able to escape without assistance!

Unless...

Scott subtly nudged Jess. His friend discreetly turned to him and Scott moved his eyes towards the nearest exit, trying to get her to understand. Fortunately for him, Jess was quick to catch on and slowly nudged Ethan next to her, who snapped his head up, seeing what his friends were up to. He nodded in confirmation and glanced towards the nearest bad guy. 

_Distraction?_

The guard nearest to them was covering the area on his own, as most of the others were keeping an eye on the middle section as there were more students sitting there. Being on his own left this guard exposed.

Scott gestured with his head his intentions to escape through the back exit and slowly wiggled to the right to get closer to the door. He avoided his fellow classmates, who saw what he was up to, and they silently agreed to assist him with getting out of there. They subtly shifted closer together, making his movements seem less obvious. The guard couldn’t see what they were up to as he was too busy reading the large whiteboard on the wall above them, the gym teacher having left her lesson notes on it.

Scott scooted along a little quicker, getting even closer to the door. He passed the last lot of students in the group when the guard finally stopped daydreaming and looked back down at them all. Scott stopped and tried to act as casual as he could be whilst being held hostage. He looked back at Jess and Ethan who seemed to be whispering something, with Jess adamantly shaking her head. Ethan seemed spurred on by this and suddenly stood up, charging towards the lone guard.

“Mutiny!” he shouted, tackling the guard and pinning his gun down. Some of the braver students felt inspired by his actions and also stood up, going for the other guards with an equally motivating battle cry, leaving the room in chaos.

The perfect distraction.

Scott scrambled to his feet and shoved the back door open, which to his joy hadn’t been locked! The door slammed behind him and he took off into the P.E corridor, making his way to the main body of the school. He dashed towards the main building and with his heart pounding in his chest, dove through the door into one of the stairwells and ducked under the stairs. Panting quickly, he pushed himself against the wall and got onto his knees, hoping nobody had noticed his escape. He raised himself up to look out of the glass window in the door and found the courtyard silent. Scott let out a tired laugh.

He’d made it.

~~~~~

John couldn’t believe it.

After his unsuccessful mission to find a phone, John found himself back in his secret hideout. He had restarted his computer to start studying the cameras to see if anything had changed and was amazed to find several police cars sitting outside the entrance to the school, a group of police officers trying to break into the locked gates. 

He felt a surge of hope rush through him. The police were here! Did that mean they’d gotten his email? Did they know what was going on? Had he actually managed to help them?

John let out a deep breath and found himself glancing at the cameras again, watching as more and more police cars turned up. For a brief moment his attention was drawn to the bottom camera screen. From the corner of his eye, he saw something dart into focus before disappearing. Assuming it was just a fly, he moved to the first camera, but then the object in the bottom screen moved again. John’s eyes darted back down to see a person moving. 

It was a student!

He closely watched the screen as the blurry figure rushed towards the building into the stairwell just down from where he was hiding. Knowning he needed to help a fellow student, he quickly stood up and swiftly padded out of the room and down the corridor, opening the door into the stairwell. He could hear panting. John slowly crept towards the bannister and peered down. The person was out of sight, obviously under the stairs.

“Hey.” John whispered. “Up here!”

The figure poked his head out from beneath the stairs. 

John’s eyes lit up and he gasped loudly. “Scott!”

“John!” Scott grinned, quickly jumping to his feet and rushing upstairs to embrace his brother. He practically tackled the blonde into a hug, resting his head on his chest.

John was the first to pull away, “We have to go back into the QLZ. Come on!”

“The Quiet Learning Zone?” 

“Hurry!” John pulled his brother along until they reached their haven. On arriving inside, John locked the door and threw himself at his brother. 

“John?”

“They’ve got Virg.” John forced out. “They have him, Scott. What do we do?”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Christine locked her car and hurried towards the crime scene, Alan scooped up in her arms. Gordon had already rushed ahead and managed to sneak under the police tape cordoning off the area. Christine called him back but the little fire-haired boy continued to race towards the school.

Gordon darted past parked police cars and stopped by the bumper of a large police van, panting to himself. His eyes were locked on the school entrance and after a few more breaths, he leapt out of his hiding spot and ran towards the doors. He almost had his hand on the handle when someone pulled him back, causing him to let out an irritated cry.

“Woah there, tiger! You can’t go in there.”

Gordon turned to see that he was being held by a ebony-skinned policeman. The child let out another whine and struggled in the man’s arms. “But my brothers are in there!” Gordon cried.

Christine managed to pursue her grandson and stepped under tape barriers blocking her path. On seeing her approach, the policeman lowered Gordon to the ground but his hand remained on the boy’s arm, stopping the boy from catapulting towards the school. The policeman tilted his hat to the older woman.

“Gordon!” Christine reprimanded, grabbing his hand. “You shouldn’t have run off like that!” She turned to the policeman. “I’m sorry, sir, he’s a handful at the best of times. I’m Christine Tracy.”

“I’m Captain Dean. Shawn Dean. It’s no problem, ma’am, I have two firecrackers of my own.” his warm face turned serious. “Please rest assured that we’re working on the situation at hand.”

“Please do your best, Captain. My grandsons are in there...”

“Don’t you worry, Mrs Tracy. We’ll get them out. We’ll get them all out.”

“What are you planning?” the inquisitive Gordon asked.

Captain Dean just smiled and ruffled his hair. He spoke into his radio, “How’s everything going your end, Jenkins?” 

Gordon turned to his grandmother and peered up at her with bright, worried eyes. Christine smiled tightly and knelt beside him, lowering Alan with her. “Everything will be alright, sunshine. You’ll see.”

“But what if they don’t get out?” Gorodn squeaked, panicking Alan.

“They have to get out! They just have to!” Alan cried, hugging his grandmother’s arm.

“Mrs Tracy?” the Captain addressed her. 

She stood up. “What’s the matter, Captain?” she noticed his darkened expression.

“My men are dealing with a press invasion. The tabloids are looking to get the latest scoop. They’re already on route.”

Christine’s eyes widened, suddenly realizing the position she found herself in. Her grandsons. Her son. “Jeff...” she murmured.

The policeman understood her concern, knowing who she was. “Don’t worry Mrs Tracy. We won’t let them get to you. I suggest for now you and your grandsons hide in one of our unmarked police cars.”

“But what about the others?” Gordon whined as his grandmother started tugging him away. “I can’t leave them!”

“Gordon!”

“I can’t!” he struggled in her grip. 

Captain Dean placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Gordon, buddy? For now I need you to look after your brother and your nana. Let me deal with everything else, okay? We’ll get your brothers back safely.” 

Gordon pouted but relented, allowing the adults to lead him and Alan to the disguised vehicle.

~~~~~

“The police are crowding outside.”

“Good, let them crowd.”

Virgil listened to his captors, trying to take in as much helpful information as he could. He’d discovered that the leader of the bad guys was called Kenyon, and this seemed to annoy his captor, Ritter, so there was obviously a bit of tension there. These men were apparently working for a man they addressed as ‘X’, but Virgil didn’t know anything about that guy other than the fact he was male.

He pulled at his bounds once again, hoping they’d let up against the leg of the table he was tied to. Ritter walked around the table and Virgil ceased his struggling. He stared down at the floor and hoped the man would move away from him.

“How ya doing, kiddo?” he asked, resting on his gun.

Virgil just ignored him.

“Aww, don’t be like that. You’ll be seeing your daddy soon enough.”

Virgil couldn’t help but glare at the man for that remark.

“Someone’s a little touchy.” one of the other guards sniggered.

Virgil decided to be brave. “Shouldn’t you be?”

“Excuse me?” Ritter responded.

“You’re surrounded. You’ll never get away with this.”

Ritter crouched down beside the boy. “I believe you’ll find we already have.”

Virgil’s heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll see.” 

Ritter’s radio device suddenly flared to life. The man stood up to answer the call. Virgil tried controlling his breathing, not wanting to show his captors he was near hyperventilation. He jumped at Ritter’s loud cry.

“WHAT?” the man blared, “How did he manage to escape? He was in a locked room for crying out loud! IDIOTS!”

Virgil’s heart raced faster. One of them had managed to escape? 

“They’re children! How were you overpowered by CHILDREN?”

Despite his panic, Virgil felt a small smile appear on his lips. Grown men being taken on and losing to a bunch of students was pretty funny to him.

“Tell Kenyon I want to speak to him.” A pause. “What do you mean he’s busy? Put him on NOW!” Another pause. “Hello? Smithy?” The radio produced static. Ritter turned to the other two guards with a sharp frown. “We have a problem.”

“One of the kids escaped?” the first guard asked.

“Yeah. Unfortunately it happened to be a Tracy.”

Virgil’s eyes lit up. One of his brothers had escaped? If Kenyon was the one guarding the sports hall, then that meant...

“Scott...” Virgil murmured to himself.

Ritter scowled at hearing the name and accosted Virgil. “And you can wipe that damn smile off your face too, kid! We still have you and that’s all that matters!” He turned back to his guards. “Search the school! He can’t have gotten too far.”

The guards nodded and left the room. Ritter turned to face Virgil with a smirk.

“This is where the fun begins.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bring on 2021! 
> 
> Faster updates, too. <3

Scott felt sick. 

Arguing with Virgil had been bad enough, but being informed he’d been taken hostage made him feel worse. Much much worse.

_This is all my fault..._

John’s anxiety had flown into overload at this point. “What do we do, Scott? The police are outside - do we just hide out here and wait for them to act or do we do something? I don’t know what to do! What do you think? Scott? Scott!”

“John, calm down!” Scott snapped, breaking through his brother’s panic. He held onto John’s arms and took a deep breath. “Look, you getting in a state like this won’t fix anything.”

“What do we do then?” John exhaled, trying to deplete his worries. “We can’t exactly fight them.”

“Why not?”

John gave Scott a blank look. “You’re kidding.”

“Not kidding.” Scott stood rigid, turning to face the door. “I think need to split up. That way the bad guys will have two trails to follow when it comes down to it.”

John shook his head, “What? No! You can’t leave now, you might get caught! They’ll know you’re missing and be looking for you! Besides, they don’t even know I’m here!”

“They will if someone cracks.” Scott gave him a serious look, “Someone cracked for Virgil, didn’t they?”

“So what do you intend to do? Roam around the school until you’re captured? You can’t do that, Scott. They’ll kill you!”

“No they won’t, John. You and I both know they want us alive.” he gave him a solemn look. “I think they’re after dad.”

“Dad’s cash more like it...” John lowered his head, “I know, I kinda figured that too. They’re nothing but low life bank robbers.” he held himself in a hug, “And... kidnappers.”

Scott’s eyes widened, “Kidnappers?”

John stared up at him with shining eyes. “Don’t you see what’s happening? They’ll want us for ransom. I think their intention is to kidnap us and use us against dad.”

Scott scowled. “Well that’s not happening. You’re staying here and I’m going to look for Virgil.”

John grabbed Scott’s arm, “No, listen Scott-“

“No, _you_ listen, John! I managed to escape the sports hall without being seen so I’ve got stealth going for me. I know this school like the back of my hand - these terrorists don’t. I need to find out where he’s being kept.”

“You’re not John McClane, Scott.”

“No.” Scott turned to face the door. “I’m Scott Tracy.” he turned back to face his younger brother. “I need to do this, Johnny. Be my eyes.”

John sighed deeply, giving it some lengthy consideration before deciding. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it.” The blonde turned back to his monitor and started punching in some code. “But you’re not going until I find a clear route for you. We’ll observe what’s going on for a while and then you can leave.”

“But-“

“The door’s locked. Nobody knows we’re here and nobody can get in. Capeesh?”

Scott lowered himself onto the chair next to his brother. “Fine. You drive a hard bargain, Johnny.”

“That’s because I don’t want to lose you either, idiot.”

Scott fell silent for a few moments. “I’ll get him back, John.”

John’s eyes blared into the computer screen. “I wonder if dad knows yet?”

Scott scoffed loudly. “As if he’d care.”

~~~~~

Jeff was on his third panic attack of the day.

He’d practically been shoved into his private limousine by his aging driver, Reginald, having sensed the press would soon make their way over to Tracy Towers. Several news stations had confirmed the name of the school featured in the hijacking and that it served as the educational institute for Jeff Tracy’s sons.

Jeff sat in the back with Susie, who had refused to abandon him in his time of need. The two were going over Jeff’s financial details and everything needed to complete the bank transfer. The businessman had once again paused in the middle of an anxious tirade and suddenly found he couldn’t breathe, feeling completely numb. With Susie flapping around him, he soon snapped out of it, but the niggling feeling of doubt crept into the dark corners of his mind.

He’d been an awful father. It was HIS fault his boys were in this predicament. He’d let them down, he’d let himself down and worst of all, he’d let Lucille down.

 _I’m so sorry Lucy..._

Jeff thought of his darling wife once more. He’d been pushing thoughts of her to the back of his mind since the funeral. It had just been too painful for him to see her face, even in his dreams. He still wasn’t over her death. Grief clawed at him night and day so he had to keep himself busy to stop her intrusions because he couldn’t face seeing her. Couldn’t face going back to the home they’d built together. Couldn’t face seeing his children. 

_They’re all I have left. I can’t lose them too._

_“Then be a better father.”_ he heard the voice of his fallen wife inside him.

She was right. He’d neglected them long enough. Nowadays, all his children ever did was argue with him or ignore him. They’d pushed him away like he pushed him. He’d ruined their childhood. He was a monster. He had to fix his mistakes. He had to prove to himself that he could be a better father. They needed him now more than ever. 

He also needed to do this for the sake of all the other children and teachers caught in the crossfire. “Floor it, Reg!” Jeff called out to his driver.

The old man sped up, managing to overtake cars stuck in the streams of city traffic. Jeff watched as everything flew past, unconsciously thinking to give Reginald and Susie a raise. They’d always supported him and he appreciated it more than he could express.

“M-Mr Tracy, I recommend that we swap cars before we get there.” Susie broke through his thoughts.

Overhearing her comment, Reginald nodded. “She’s right, sir. Your limousine will bring too much unwanted attention.”

Jeff slapped his palms against his head. He knew should have thought of that in the first instance, but everything had been a rush. He wasn’t thinking straight. He just needed to get to his kids.

_Kids..._

“Gordon! Alan!” Jeff cried out loudly, making his companions jump. Shakily, Jeff pulled up his phone to see numerous missed calls from his mother. His mother!

Jeff immediately called her, holding the phone against his ear. For a few short moments it seemed like time stopped as the ringing sound repeated over and over again until she answered.

“Jefferson?”

On hearing his dear mother’s voice, Jeff broke down and wept.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy this next one!

Virgil angrily struggled at his bonds and yanked hard against the leg of the table, desperately trying to free himself. The man who was guarding him had just left the room after being called outside by one of the other guards, allowing the teenager the freedom to escape, but he just couldn’t get himself free. 

His ropes wouldn’t budge.

“Come on!” he grumbled, tugging harder. The ropes were now cutting into his wrists but he didn’t care. He just had to get free. He pulled and he pulled until they finally slipped a little, allowing him to pull his right wrist out of the loop. He set about freeing his second hand when the door banged open, the guard strolling back in. 

Virgil paused and remained close to the leg, wrapping his free hand around the back so it looked like he was still properly tied up. The guard raised an eyebrow at the teenager’s seemingly elevated breathing but said nothing, standing back over in the corner.

Virgil frowned, inwardly screaming at his new predicament. He was still stuck. There’d be no way for him to overpower the guard as he was still holding the gun and would hold it against him. But even if the man left the classroom again, the corridor would be teeming with bad guys, leaving him still unable to escape.

Unless he used the window...

Virgil subtly moved his head backwards to glance at the large windows on the wall behind him. They opened via a small gap at the top, so the only way he’d be able to reach outside would be to stand on the tables or the teacher’s desk and then lever himself up and over the ridge. If he did that, he’d reach the car park in no time and would be able to sprint to the exit scot-free.

_Scott..._

He missed his brother immensely. If he ever got out of this mess alive, the first thing he’d do would be to apologize to him.

He shook his head. He couldn’t get distracted now. He’d only have one chance to escape. 

“Hey Tiny! Get your ass out here!”

Virgil turned towards his captor, who was now glaring towards the door. He ignored the call until the door opened again, another guard peeping into the room.

“Didn’t you hear me? I just called!”

“I’ve just been out there. What does he want now?”

“The police are here.”

Virgil’s heart skipped a beat. The police? That meant the students were one step closer to escaping from these guys!

His heart pounding in his chest, Virgil tried to remain calm as the guard left the room once again.

As soon as the door shut, he yanked his hands out of the ropes and leapt to his feet, darting towards the window. He jumped onto the table and opened the window, cursing a little as he saw just how small the window gap was. Momentarily forgetting about that problem, Virgil pushed himself through the gap and landed outside on the concrete floor. He immediately ran towards the car park before pushing himself against the wall so nobody would see him.

Leaning against the wall of one of the office buildings, Virgil let out a shaky breath. An ecstatic chuckle escaped from his lips. He moved along the building towards the school entrance. He could see a large group of police cars, vans and ambulance just waiting there. The criminals were right. The police HAD arrived.

It was just so surreal to him.

As he got even closer, Virgil started to see policemen and women wandering around the area, setting up a blockade and planning what to do next. He watched intently, quietly observing his surroundings. As his eyes danced over a few of the pedestrian vehicles lurking behind the police cars, he gasped loudly on recognizing his grandmother’s car. 

If that was here it meant she was too!

A pair of strong arms suddenly constricted him, causing him to cry out as he was dragged backwards. Virgil struggled wildly as Kenyon barged the nearest door open and pulled the teenager into the secluded music room, pinning him to his side. Kenyon dragged him through the classroom and up the stairs leading onto the theatre stage, pulling him along until he reached the top of the theatre where he was pushed back into the canteen. 

Wincing as his head was pulled upright by his hair, Virgil was surprised to find all the students gone from the cafeteria.

Kenyon sensed his confusion. “Surprised? We’ve moved them all.”

“Where?” Virgil practically snapped, still struggling in the man’s grip.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, kid?”

“Who are you?” Virgil bravely asked, trying to punch him.

“Never you mind, kid.”

Virgil scowled and tried kicking the man as he was dragged back towards the English classroom he was originally being held in. When Kenyon passed it, Virgil felt his heart start to race in his chest. 

The man was taking him further into the school, away from the police.

Virgil couldn’t stand this. As Kenyon passed a set of double doors leading into the new corridor, Virgil grabbed hold of one of the door handles, refusing to be pulled any further. Kenyon struggled with him and tried yanking him off the door.

“Let go of the door!”

“Make me, creep!”

After a few moments of trying to pull the teenager away from the door, Kenyon slowly reached into his pocket and whipped out his pistol. He calmly aimed it at Virgil’s temple, causing the determined boy to freeze. “Do we have an understanding now?”

Virgil just nodded and allowed himself to be pushed towards the back of the school.

~~~~~

Scott watched as John scanned the computer screen, occasionally typing in a few bits of data on-screen. After a few minutes he called Scott over, having spotted something.

“What’s up?” Scott moved himself off his perch.

John’s eyes were glued to the screen. “They’re moving them.”

“Moving who?”

“The students. The rest of them.”

“Really?” Scott closely observed the screen. “Where would they be taking them?”

“Looks like the sports hall.” John noted.

“The sports hall? They’re moving the entire student body into the same room? That’s just asking for trouble.”

“I think... they’re trying to find us.” John replied quietly, noticing how some of the lighter-haired boys were being treated.

“With all of them in one room, someone’s bound to crack.”

“Yeah, for sure. So that doesn’t give us much time.”

“What do you suggest?” Scott turned to his sibling.

“I... don’t know.” John was at a loss.

Scott rubbed his chin. “Then it’s settled. When they’ve transported the rest of the year group outside, I’ll sneak into the corridor and find Virgil.”

“Scott...” John protested.

“No, John, I already told you. I need to do this. You’ve found me a route, right?”

“Right...”

“So I know a way of getting around them. Besides, I can cut through the classrooms. These idiots just seem to be using the corridors.”

“Okay.” John sighed. “Just... at least take something with you to use as a weapon.”

Scott glanced around the room. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, anything!”

“I could always throw a book at them.”

“Scott!”

“Okay, fine...” Scott hauled himself to his feet and started looking around for a weapon. “Doesn’t look like there’s anything here though.”

John joined his brother in searching for something to arm himself with. He looked over by the teacher’s desk and yanked open the metal drawers, fiddling inside each one to see if there was anything of use. On pulling the third drawer open he spotted what looked like a can of deodrant spray. A devious grin slipped onto his face and he turned to Scott, throwing him the can.

Scott caught the can without even looking up. He held it in the palm of his hand and started grinning. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. I even have one in my bag.”

“Well you are known for being the slow Tracy.” John smiled. “It doesn’t matter anyway - this way you won’t even have to waste yours.” John approached him slowly, holding his hands behind his back. 

Scott slotted the can into his pocket. “It’ll come in handy.”

The two went silent, knowing it was time for them to part. John was trying to act impassive as always, but Scott could tell his decision was hurting his brother. 

The brunette sighed and pulled his little brother into a hug. John clung to him tightly. After a few moments, John pulled away and Scott made his way over to the door. He unlocked it and quietly opened it, checking to see if the corridor was clear before stepping out. He turned back to his brother to give him one last farewell glance.

“Remember to keep wearing your earphones so I can relay instructions to you.” John ordered, trying not to feel so downbeat. “And when you do find him, get out of here. I’ll make my own way out. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You got it, bro. I’ll see you soon.” Scott saluted him.

“Stay safe, okay?”

“F.A.B.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up...

“Dad?” 

Gordon stared at his father with wide eyes. He was really... here? 

No... That couldn’t be. His father was always at work. He had things to do, people to see. He was busy. Always busy.

Then why was he here?

“Jefferson...” Christine hugged her son tightly, wiping away the tears from his eyes.

As mother and son embraced, Jeff whispered something into her ear. This caused her to gasp and hold a shaking hand over her mouth. She gestured for the police captain to come over and she introduced him to her son. The three adults remained in deep discussion until Captain Dean spoke into his radio, a grim expression etched onto his face.

Gordon didn’t really know what was going on, but he sure didn’t like it. His grandmother’s expression told him everything.

Alan made a squeaking noise as he reached out for his father, tugging at his jacket. Pulling away from his mother, Jeff scooped Alan into his arms and hugged him tightly, refusing to let go. He then knelt down and urged Gordon to join in. Gordon padded over to his father and allowed himself to be picked up, wrapping his arms around him.

“Oh Gordon, Alan... My boys...”

“Did you hear about the school from the T.V?” Gordon asked, trying to figure out why his father wasn’t at work.

Jeff shook his head. “No Gordon. A bad man contacted me.”

“A bad man?” Alan repeated curiously. 

Jeff nodded, holding his two boys tighter still. “He told me what was happening here. He wants me to give him some money so then-“ he paused momentarily, not wanting to divulge too much information in case of panicking them. “-he’ll let all of the children go. Do you understand?”

Both Gordon and Alan nodded their heads.

“Are you going to do it?” Gordon asked, looking at his father with wide eyes.

“Yes Gordon. The police chief is sorting everything out now.”

“Will you have to go inside?”

“I don’t know yet Gordon.” Jeff lowered his two boys to the ground and knelt in front of them. He gazed at them for a few moments, holding his right hand against Gordon’s cheek. The guilt of not being around for his boys since the funeral flew through him that moment. It was his fault they’d gotten into this mess. He lowered his head, trying not to let his emotions spill. 

It was his fault.

He felt a little pressure against his chest and looked up to see a beaming Alan hugging him. “Alan?”

“You’ll save the day, won’t you dad?” 

For the first time since Virgil’s call, Jeff found himself smiling. Despite everything he had done, Alan still had faith in him. Patting his youngest son’s head, he looked at Gordon to see the little auburn smiling as well. Jeff reached out for him and held onto his hand.

“I’ll do it for you.”

~~~~~

Scott slipped into the first biology classroom on the right, eyes darting around to see if the room was occupied. Seeing that it was empty, he scampered into the middle of the class and peered through the door leading to the accompanying classroom, seeing it also empty.

_”John to Scott. Can you hear me?”_

“Just about. You’re amazing, Johnny-boy.” he whispered back. John’s stroke of genius meant he could act as his eyes, guiding Scott from upstairs.

_”I hope you remember that in time for my next birthday.” John chirped back. “Where are you? I lost you in the maths corridor.”_

“I snuck into Room 8. Nobody around.” he peered through the window in the door leading to the next classroom. “Nobody in Room 10 either. If I cut through this way I’ll be missing out a chunk of corridor.”

_“I’ve just checked and there are no bad guys in the science corridor right now. The camera stops just after Room 9 so I can’t see any further up there. The bit leading to the cooking room may have some men guarding it so I reckon you should watch out.”_

“Thanks for the heads-up. If you see anyone around let me know.”

_”Gotcha.”_

Scott slipped into the interlinking room and darted along the side of the wall until he reached the exit door. On peering through the door and seeing the corridor clear, Scott opened it and made his way through. He stepped into the passageway, listening out for any noise. As he walked away from the room, he heard the slight sound of murmuring.

“This is the last time I go through with one of Ritter’s plans.”

“Tell me about it.”

“The pay’s not worth it, man. I’m honestly thinking about bailing.”

“I’m with ya. Taking on a whole school just to kidnap three kids. He serious?”

“He’s been spending too much time with that nutjob, Kenyon.”

The two men passed by, not seeing Scott crouched by the display sign. Scott breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, pressing himself against the wall. He slid down it until he reached the next corridor, spotting the two men walking ahead, guns still in hand. Turning on his heel, Scott padded down the trail the guards originally came from and popped into the hall, heading towards the cooking room. Muffled voices could be heard coming from behind the door.

Ducking down so he wouldn’t be seen, Scott pressed his ear against the door.

“Phase two is complete. Tracy’s agreed to send over the money.”

“That’s excellent!”

“Once he’s made the transfer, we’ll start releasing the other school kids through the front entrance. I’ve already told Anderson and Gallows to start prepping for a mass exodus.”

“What about Tracy’s son?”

“This one’s staying put. As for the other two, well... Kenyon’s on the look out for them. He’s hoping one of their friends will squeal.”

“Good. If we can bag all three, that’ll be a bonus. For you too, if you make a good job of this.”

“Yes boss.”

The door handle started to wobble. Eyes wide, Scott leapt into the middle of the corridor and made a run for the classroom opposite. He dived inside and slammed the door shut, just as the men left the cooking room. Unfortunately for him, they heard the slam.

“Hey, that door moved.”

“Someone must be in there!”

Praising the fact the door had no window, Scott propped a chair up against the handle, preventing it from being opened. The men on the other side tried the handle to find it couldn’t move.

“What are you idiots playing at?” Ritter asked, seeing his men dumbly standing around next to it.

“Someone just went in there.” the first man informed him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, the door slammed as soon as we walked out here.”

“Open it!”

The second man shook his head, “I think they’ve jammed the door from the inside.”

Ritter growled and pushed one of his men out of the way, trying the locked door himself. “Then barge it open!”

“Yes boss.”

Scott bit his tongue as the door thumped and thumped again, the men jumping against the door. He ran to the window and tried the latch, finding it too stiff to open.

“It won’t budge!”

“Try harder you idiot!”

The pounding at the door continued, causing the chair Scott had propped up to bounce a little, beginning to give way. 

Scott quickly made his way under the teacher’s desk, the only place for him to hide. He knew the door would soon give, and that would be bad news for him.

Armed with his deodrant spray, Scott prepared himself for the impending attack.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been binge watching the series and it’s been inspiring me to write more and get chapters up faster.
> 
> You’re welcome. xD

John monitored the computer screen closely. He could no longer see his brother as he’d now walked out of camera reach and presumably into the nearby classrooms. John decided to keep monitoring the corridor anyway to guard it in case any bad guys strolled by. He could then give Scott a fair warning before they got to him, giving him plenty of time to escape.

Feeling the light throb of a migrain coming on, John rubbed his temples and watched the corridor closely. It was still empty at this point, and John hoped it would stay that way.

After a few dull moments, two men walked into view. John listened closely to what they were saying, but found nothing of use. The men were just complaining about their job.

_Ooh... trouble in paradise?_

He waited a little longer and eventually heard a loud noise which ricocheted down the corridor. It sounded like a door slamming, which probably meant it _was_ a door slamming.

His deductive skills were on point.

“Scott?” John gasped. Scott was most likely the reason for the door to suddenly slam like that. He listened to the audio coming from the video feed and could hear faint shouting coming from the same direction. It sounded like the guy he’d come to know as Ritter, or as John liked to call him, Fritter.

_“What are you idiots playing at?”_

This obviously meant trouble for Scott.

Thinking quickly, John desperately tapped the keyboard and patched in some code to the system. It wasn’t going to be much of a distraction but it would definitely be something.

After clicking the enter key, John tensely sat and waited to see what would happen.

~~~~~

Scott let out a shaky breath. 

The men were still barging themselves against the door, and he had a horrible feeling the door would soon give. It had slipped a few times as their bodies bounced off of it and the chair was now sliding too.

He had to be ready for when they entered.

He sort of knew what he’d be doing. He’d leap out and attempt to subdue the men that were twice his age and height and build. It was fine. He knew how to handle himself. He had four brothers, after all.

The door bounced one more time. 

Scott was just preparing to jump out when the sound of Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy pirouetted through the school’s speaker system.

“Hey, what the hell is that?”

“It’s music!”

“Where’s it coming from?”

Scott was at first completely bewildered by the unexpected intrusion of music. It almost felt surreal, as if he was in one of those old cartoons where the hero used music to distract the bad guys. 

_Hey... wait a second!_

“John...” Scott murmured with a grin. It was obviously a distraction designed to save him!

Grinning widely, Scott decided thst escaping through the classroom window was his only option. Grabbing the nearest chair, Scott threw it at the window, causing a crack to appear as the chair bounced off it. 

“Someone IS in there! Hurry up and open the door!”

“I’m trying! It’s stiff and old!”

“Like YOU!”

Scott quickly picked up the chair again and threw it harder against the window, causing the glass to shatter.

Scott leapt through the open gap and ran for his life.

~~~~~

Jeff sat in the car that the police chief had set aside for his mother and children to rest in whilst they dealt with the situation. Susie and Reginald were preoccupying Gordon and Alan in the front of the car as Jeff sat with his head in his hands in the back, his mother sitting next to him. He was deep in thought, thinking about all that had happened that day.

Why would someone hijack an entire school just to find his three kids?

He felt pressure against his shoulder and looked up to see Gordon’s tired little face. Jeff picked up his son and held him against his chest.

“Are you okay dad?” Gordon asked.

Jeff forced a smile and nodded. He gently ran his fingers across Gordon’s face and frowned when he noticed the light bruises marring his pale skin. He remembered what his mother had briefly told him about Gordon’s school antics.

Although it wasn’t the most usual time or place for a reprimand, Jeff needed to address the issue. “What’s this your grandmother tells me about you fighting with Derek, Gordon?” he started softly, not wanting to distress the boy too much.

Gordon sighed. He’d completely forgotten about that. “He keeps saying stuff about mom. I don’t mind if he calls me names. I just can’t stand it when he says stuff about mom, and Alan.” he clung to his father’s jacket. “So I hit him.”

Jeff shook his head in disapproval. “You have to try and learn to ignore him, son. I know it’s hard, and sometimes you just want to hit him to try and make him go away, but that’s not the right way to deal with things. Alright?”

“Yes father.”

“I don’t want you getting into any more fights. You have to learn to ignore him, and anyone who speaks down to you for that matter.”

“Yes... father.”

“Good.” Jeff kissed Gordon’s head and let him crawl onto the lap of his grandmother. The occupants of the car were quiet for a few moments, until Alan broke the silence.

“Scott.” Alan stated, pointing at the windscreen.

“Yes, Scott’s your brother.” Susie acknowledged.

“No, Scott!” Alan said a little louder this time, waving his finger towards the teenager. 

The adults followed the direction of his finger to see said teenager hurrying towards the car park.

“Scott!” Christine shouted, “Oh Jeff, Scott’s there, Scott’s there!”

Jeff immediately threw himself out of the car.

~~~~~

Scott darted around the police cars and dazedly looked around in shock. 

He’d actually made it out of the school. He’d actually made it out of school - without being caught! 

Scott winced at how bright everything seemed as he clumsily made his way down towards the parked cars. He swiftly rubbed his eyes and bumped into a police car blocking the path. He brushed himself around it and looked around at the mass of people crowding around the scene, police tape strewn everywhere.

John’s email had obviously gotten through alright.

“Scott!”

Scott turned in the direction of the voice and his heart dropped on seeing the person who called him. 

It was his dad.

_Dad..._

The teenager ran towards his father and enveloped him in a hug.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert dramatic sting here*

John’s heart pounded in his chest.

He stared at the screen with wide eyes, watching as several men ran down the corridor to the left and towards where Scott had been just moments before. His musical interruption had obviously jarred the bad guys and they were seemingly running around like headless chickens, wondering what was going on.

Two of the men walked into shot. He recognized one as Ritter, the man who’d dared to put his mitts on Virgil. He was ordering his men about, furiously gesturing down the corridor in the right direction. 

Did this mean Scott had escaped?

His computer screen suddenly went blank, completely switching off. He frowned and tried the monitor but it had also gone dead. John bit his tongue and tried the computers next to him but they weren’t working either. There had been a power outage.

He was in the dark.

“Darn it...” he whispered, hoping things wouldn’t get any worse. He grabbed his bag and placed it on the chair, rummaging around for his phone. He scooped it up and tried turning it on before remembering it was dead. He shook his head and threw it back inside the bag. 

He was alone.

~~~~~

“Dad!” Scott held his father’s arms tightly, taking a step back to study his father’s features in full, checking he was really there and not a figment of his imagination.

“Scott, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Jeff gave his son the once over, examining him to see if he’d sustained any injuries.

Scott shook his head. “No dad, but listen! They have Virgil!” he cried. “Some guy called Ritter’s got him! He and another guy called Kenyon have taken over the school!”

“Kenyon!” Jeff gasped, immediately recognizing the name. 

“You know him?”

“He and his associates recently contacted me with a business proposition that I turned down.” Jeff replied grimly.

Scott allowed this knowledge to sink in. “You mean... they’re doing this in revenge?”

Jeff gritted his teeth as the police chief arrived. Jeff explained to him that Scott had just escaped and filled him in with what he’d just been told by his son. 

“Kenyon is working for a man called Matthias Barratt, the owner of Barratt Industries.” Jeff informed him.

“I know that company well. It’s based in Seattle. They supply our police department with weapons. From my knowledge, Mr Barrett’s always trying publicity stunts to achieve his ends.” 

“And now he has my son.” Jeff spat. 

Scott stared at his father. His tone suggested that he knew something that the teenager didn’t.

“Scott! Oh Scott!” came a shrill voice from behind them. Scott turned and was captured in his grandmother’s death grip as her kisses rained down on him. He smiled and tried to pull away but found his legs being attacked by hugs from Gordon and Alan. 

“Scotty!”

“It’s good to see you too!” Scott wheezed, trying to free himself. During this moment, he took a second to look back over at his father. The Tracy patriarch had a grave expression plastered on his face as he spoke to the police captain and looked more worried than ever.

Just what was going on?

~~~~~

“Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!” Kenyon kicked a nearby chair, catapulting it into the table. It narrowly missed the chair that Virgil was tied up against, causing the pre-teen to jump. “It was Scott Tracy! I know it was!”

“Which makes it YOUR fault for allowing him to escape in the first place!” Ritter scowled as he polished his gun.

Kenyon hissed at his companion. “You let him slip through your fingers! He was right THERE! Now he’s going to tell the police EVERYTHING!”

Ritter rolled his eyes. “Stop worrying. This was all part of the plan, remember?”

“The plan was to kidnap three of Jeff Tracy’s sons, and we only have one! The oldest one got away and I don’t know where the hell John’s at because we’ve checked the entire student body and school and there’s still no sign of him!”

Ritter’s head shot up, something suddenly clicking for him. “Have you tried upstairs?”

“The men did a sweep when we first came in, why?”

Ritter just grinned. He glanced back at the gagged Virgil, who was looking at the pair with a sense of foreboding. Placing his hand on Kenyon’s shoulder, he led the tempestuous man outside, leaving Virgil locked inside the empty classroom.

~~~~~

John paced up and down the room that had been his haven for the past few hours, hands behind his back. Trapped with no communication to what was going on downstairs or the outside world, John was trying to figure out what to do. 

He’d considered leaving the room and doing what Scott had done, but knew he wasn’t the type to go skulking around the corridors with the threat of being found. He may have been tall for his age but he was lean and also not very good with physical combat. If he got into an altercation with someone then he knew he wouldn’t be able to fight back.

He really wished he was more like Scott.

Shaking off his despondent thoughts, John decided to act. Scott was still looking for Virgil so the most logical thing for him to do was slip out of the school while everyone was preoccupied. He knew in his heart he should have chosen the braver option and search for Virgil himself, but ultimately he’d end up getting caught and the bad guys would then have two hostages. It was for the best.

 _‘Stop psychoanalysing the situation and get on with it!’_ a voice from the depths of his mind screamed at him.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, John stood by the door, letting out a shaky sigh. He tried steadying his rapid breaths and clutched his hands together, composing himself. As he was about to open the door, a feeling of guilt struck him in the chest.

He couldn’t leave Virgil.

“Right.” John affirmed himself, rolling up his sleeves. His rucksack slid to the floor. Abandoning his plan entirely, John decided to play the hero. If he got caught then so be it. He just needed to see if Virgil was okay.

He quietly opened the door. Listening out for noise and hearing nothing, he gently stepped into the corridor, cautiously walking down it. He felt proud of himself for trying to act like Scott.

John stopped in the crook of a small passageway which led to the teacher’s staffroom. He paused for a moment, deciding to see if the room was empty as he be able to cut through it. 

The blonde made his way over to the staffroom door and peered through the glass window. Inside the room he could see three bad guys casually drinking coffee and eating snacks. He frowned, taken aback by their casual attitudes. They were currently holding the school hostage and were taking... a tea break?

"Playing Mr Detective, are we?"

John's breath caught in his throat as two strong arms wrapped around his chest tightly, hauling him off the ground. He struggled wildly as he was carried over to the wall and was slammed against it. He tried to move but felt the steely touch of a gun pressed into his back, causing him to freeze.

“John Tracy, I presume?”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super tired because my cat woke me up early yowling his head off as he fought with another cat so I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed to get through this chapter today; I’ve had no energy!
> 
> Thanks for your kind reviews! <3

“Hey there, _John_.” Ritter drawled, shoving the blonde teenager against the wall. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

John remained silent, struggling harder against his captor. He squirmed about before managing to deal a low blow to Ritter’s groin, causing the man to fall onto his knees in agony. The blonde teenager took off down the corridor and briefly turned to see the man staggering to his feet. 

He gasped and ran a little faster, not seeing a new figure emerging from the staircase in front of him until it was too late. John skidded to a stop and bumped into another man who immediately twisted him around and forced his arms behind his back.

“Gotcha blondie!” Kenyon grinned, securing John’s wrists tightly before pushing him up against the wall. The wild-haired man looked up at the approaching Ritter. “I see he took you by surprise.”

Ritter frowned and walked up to John, grabbing a fistful of his hair. He yanked his head back. “So you’re the one who’s been messing around with us, huh?”

"You're not as dumb as you look." John spat, wincing as the man backhanded his cheek.

“Real funny.” Still holding onto his wrists, Kenyon pushed John forward. “You’re coming with us, wise guy.”

John scowled as Kenyon carelessly shoved him forward. He slowly walked ahead of the man, inwardly sighing at the situation he now found himself in.

_Play the hero why don’t you? Good going John. That really worked out for ya. Oh well, at least I’ll be with Virgil now, right?_

The teenager listened to the two men carefully. They were quietly conversing about their situation. He decided to try and pick up tidbits of information and work out where to go next.

“The police are outside. Are we going to start Phase 3?” Kenyon asked his companion as he caught sight of the parked police cars through one of the windows. 

“Shortly. Let ‘em stir for a little while longer until Tracy gets the money together.”

“Tracy?” John blurted out. Did they mean his father?

“Yeah. Your precious daddy.” Kenyon answered for him. “He’s gonna give us a LOT of money to get you back.”

So they were being ransomed. Great.

“You wish.” John replied bitterly, trying to sound aloof. His father wouldn’t really trade his money for his sons, right? He really didn’t know his dad any more.

Kenyon twatted him on the side of the head for the remark and continued pushing the teenager through the empty hallway.

~~~~~

Scott watched as Captain Dean spoke to his officers, informing them of the situation inside the school. Scott had managed to give them as much information as he could, and the police were already canvassing the local area to see if anyone knew anything or had recently spotted any of Barrett’s vehicles near the scene.

He looked back towards Reginald’s car and frowned, feeling something was amiss. His father was preoccupied with his grandmother and the two were in deep discussion, alerting Scott to the fact something else was wrong. 

They knew something he didn’t.

“Scott?” 

Scott peered down to see Gordon staring at him. “Hey Gordie. You okay?”

“Nuh uh. Alan fell asleep in the car and his snoring is annoying me. Do I HAVE to keep looking after him?”

Scott scooped Gordon into his arms. “It’s an important job, kiddo. If dad told you to do it, then you do it. Alright?”

“Can’t you tell me to do it instead?”

Scott frowned, “What?”

“Dad keeps leaving us.” he sighed. “Why should I listen to him?”

Scott felt saddened by this. “Gordon, you have to trust dad’s word.”

“But I don’t trust him! He keeps leaving so obviously doesn’t care about us!” he whined, clinging to Scott’s neck. “He’s hardly spoken to us since he got here!”

“He’s stressed and busy Gordon, you must realize that.”

“He’s... just... always too busy for us.”

Scott hugged his brother tightly. “I understand how you’re feeling, Gordon. I really do. But he’s worried, and for good reason.” The brunette sighed, decided what he was going to do. “Gordon... the bad guys have Virgil.”

Gordon’s eyes went wide. “They... have Virgil?”

“Yes. That’s why dad’s so stressed. My guess is the bad guys are holding him to ransom. They want dad to pay them some money to let him go.” Scott lowered his brother to the ground.

Gordon gasped. “Did they target your school because they know you go there?”

“Seems likely.”

“What about Johnny?”

“John’s been hiding in the computer room upstairs. He’s smart so will have probably stayed put. Those crooks don’t know he’s in there.”

“That’s good.” Gordon relaxed a little. “But Virgil’s in trouble and we can’t do anything about it!”

Scott’s lips slowly slid up into a smirk.

Gordon knew this look well. It was dangerous. It meant Scott was onto something. “You have a plan?”

“Well... an idea, sort of... maybe. I need to get inside the school again.”

“But Scott-“

“No buts, Gordon. I have to get back in there and save Virgil and look for John. I have a vague idea of where they both are and they’ll need backup.”

“But that’s dangerous! You might get hurt!”

“I don’t think so, Gordon. These bad guys are kinda stupid. Besides, I have a few weapons I can use against them. Namely deodrant spray, but still, I digress.”

“Dad won’t let you go!”

“Dad’s not going to know, is he?” Scott pressed a finger to his lips. “I need you to cause a distraction. I need you to be my partner in crime.”

Gordon’s eyes lit up. “What do you need me to do?”

“Hold dad’s attention away from the side entrance. I’ll slip back in there when nobody’s looking.” he saw that Gordon’s smile had dropped, the child looking a little concerned again. Scott picked him up and kissed him on the forehead, causing the auburn-haired boy to pout.

“As dad used to say, ‘you’re my little firecracker’. Go light them up, bro.”

“Okay Scotty.” he hugged his brother’s chest before slipping down. “Good luck. I won’t tell them where you are. I promise.”

“Thanks Gordon.” Scott gave his brother a little salute as the eight-year-old padded away.

When he was sure no one was looking, Scott slipped away from the car park, making his way back up to the school.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Papa Tracy stresses a lot.

Virgil struggled at the bonds that were keeping him attached to the table leg.

The two men holding him there had not long left, so Virgil found it the perfect opportunity to try and escape. He tugged and tugged at the ropes but they would not give, so Virgil was getting increasingly frustrated with himself for not being strong enough to break them.

After wearing himself out with his unbridled struggling, Virgil attempted to remove the gag that had been tied around his mouth by shaking his head. Soon enough, the dizzy teenager had actually managed to jiggle it free. He used his lips to loosen it further and it soon dropped around his neck. Virgil coughed, his thoat having gone dry due to the constriction. 

Now that he felt a sense of freedom around his face, Virgil started tugging at his ropes again.

“Come on, come on!” he hissed to himself, trying to pull his wrists free. “Stupid, stupid-“

The teenager was interrupted when the classroom door was unlocked and unceremoniously thrown open. He quickly steadied his movements and calmed himself down, intending to give off an aura of control to his captors. Instead, his mouth dropped open in horror. 

“John!”

His injured brother was dumped in front of the tied up teenager, his limp body slapping against the floor. John’s face was bruised and an open cut on his lip trailed a little bit of blood down his chin. He let out a ragged breath.

Virgil glared murder at the cocky smirks plastered on the two mens’ faces. “What did you do to him?” he snapped, anger fizzling over. “Answer me!”

Kenyon grinned maniacally at his fury. “Just keeping him in line. You wouldn’t want anything else happening to him, would ya, Virgie?”

Virgil growled and tried kicking out at the man, who simply laughed him off and walked outside, locking them in. Virgil’s gaze fell back to his injured brother, who hadn’t moved since falling on his front. Like Virgil, his arms were also tied tightly behind his back, making movement much more difficult.

“John, are you okay?” whispered Virgil.

John stirred at the sound of Virgil’s soft voice and pulled himself together, moving his head up onto his brother’s ankle. “H-Hey Virg. It’s good to see you again.”

“Never mind me! How are you doing?”

“Meh.” John winced, trying to adjust his position to be more comfortable. “More annoyed at the fact I got captured.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “They didn’t hurt you too much, did they?”

“Nah, just some superficial wounds. I’ll be alright. Did they hurt you?”

“No but my wrists are sore from these ropes. Burn marks, probably. Did you hear from Scott?”

John gave him a small smile. “I think he escaped.”

“He did? That’s great! Would that explain the music I heard?” Virgil asked, thinking back to the musical distraction.

John’s smile widened. “Uh huh. Got ‘em good.”

“Typical Johnny.” he smiled at his brother, but it soon fell from his face. Virgil lowered his voice. “John, they made me call dad. He knows.”

John closed his eyes. “Ransom, figures.” he sighed. “Dad will never pay it. His company’s too important to him.”

Virgil exhaled softly, “I kinda figured that too...”

~~~~~

Kenyon sidled up to Ritter, who was just finishing a conversation on his phone. Pulling out a cigarette and lighter, he lit the butt of his cigarette and took a drag before holding it between his fingers. “So, what’s the news?”

“The next phase. We’ll get the men to start releasing the decoy hostages into the hands of the police. While this is going on, he’s gonna come for us in his helijet. He reckons on landing on the roof, so we’ll have to get up there pretty sharpish before those buffoons figure out what’s going on. We should get away scot-free!”

“We are getting away Scott free. That’s the problem.” Kenyon sniffed.

Ritter rolled his eyes. “He’s not too worried about that. Just having two of them is good enough.”

“That’s fine then. Have you let the men know about the situation?”

“All apart from one minor detail.”

“The one where they all take the fall for us?”

“Correct.”

Kenyon smirked.

~~~~~

After finishing his conversation with the police chief, Jeff made his way back over to the car that had become the temporary residence of the Tracy family. He slipped into the passenger seat and found Reginald playing with Alan. The driver looked up as his boss entered.

“Any news, sir?”

Jeff shook his head. “The police have sent out an APB for Barrett, but so far nothing’s come up.” he sighed. 

“I’m sure they’ll find him, Mr Tracy.”

“I hope so. When they do I’ll be giving him a piece of my mind and a smack on the jaw!”

Alan crawled over to his father and gestured to be picked up. Jeff held his youngest in his arms and the blonde boy gave him a big hug, sensing his distress. Jeff’s lips curved into a smile and he kissed Alan’s forehead.

“Thanks sunshine.”

“You’re welcome, daddy.” Alan giggled. “Where’s Gordy gone?”

“Gordon?” Jeff turned to see Gordon was no longer in the back of the car. His eyes widened a little. “Reg, where’s Gordon?”

“He left the car with Mrs Tracy and Susie, sir.”

Jeff handed Alan back to his driver. “Take care of him, would you?” 

“No problem, Mr Tracy.”

Jeff opened the car door and quickly made a beeline for Susie, who was talking to one of the police officers. “Susie! Have you seen Gordon?” he interrupted.

Susie shook her head, “He was with your mother last time I checked, Mr Tracy.”

Jeff turned on his heel, heart beating in his chest. He couldn’t lose Gordon too! He couldn’t cope with any more missing sons! Thankfully, his fears were allayed when he heard a little giggle nearby. Relaxing, Jeff walked over to where a pair of policemen were admiring Gordon’s antics. 

On seeing his father, Gordon waved. “Hi dad!”

“Gordon! What are you doing here? Where’s your grandmother?”

Gordon shrugged. 

“Jeff! Oh Jeff!” came a shrill cry from behind them. Christine briskly made her way over to Jeff and he captured her into his arms, looking concerned. 

“Mom?”

“Jefferson! Scott’s gone!”

His heart skipped a beat. “What?”

“He’s gone!” she clung onto him tightly. “One of the guards spotted him going back up towards the school!”

Jeff swore loudly and turned his gaze towards the building. It was just like Scott to fly solo and do his own thing.

“What was he thinking?”

Feeling more stressed than ever, Jeff strode over to Captain Dean to tell him what had happened as Christine scooped Gordon into her arms and walked back over to the car. Shortly afterwards, Jeff came back over, his face a mixture of anger and worry. “That boy of mine-“

“Is everything okay, Jeff?” Christine asked her son. 

Jeff sighed. “For now. I just can’t believe how foolish Scott’s been! What does he think he’s doing, running back into an armed building like that?”

“He’s obviously just looking out for his brothers, dear...” Christine tried reassuring him but was truthly as worried as he was.

“He’s put himself in danger!” Jeff seethed. “I wish he wasn’t so... impetuous!”

“He’s too much like someone else I know...” she placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him, a flicker of a smile appearing on her face. 

As Jeff was about to reply to her, a round of gunshots ricocheted in the direction of the school entrance. Captain Dean ordered his men to circle the entrance but hold their fire. A few wary moments later, the school doors opened, revealing a dark haired man holding. Gun With a smug expression on his face, Ritter strolled out with his gun resting against his shoulder.

“Beautiful day for it!” he chorused cheerfully. “Time to get this show on the road!”


End file.
